petiolate, opposite, decussating, subcordato-ovate, blunt, 
five to seven-nerved, spreading, deflected when old, tuber- 
cular on both sides, bright green above, hoary below. Pe- 
duncles axillary and terminal, often divided, many-flowered ; 
flowers in panicles at the extremity of the branches. Bractee 
solitary at the origin of the pedicels, concave, ovate, cadu- 
cous, articulated at the base. Calyx on the outside like 
the pedicels and the greater part of the plant, hoary, within 
glabrous; tube ovate ; limb five-partite, segments ovato- 
deltoid, spreading, with alternate, external,. filamentous, 
erect appendages. Flowers (an inch and a half across) 
very numerous, very handsome ; petals obovate, scarcely 
emarginate, cuneate towards the base, glabrous, reddish- 
lilac above, paler below, inserted into the throat of the 
calyx. Stamens ten, all fertile, declined ; Jilaments gla- 
brous, about half as long as the petals, inserted into the 
throat of the calyx ; anthers purple, compressed laterally, 
undulate along the face, nearly straight, opening by a pore 
at the apex ; connective bright red, in five, (in which the 
anthers are erect,) having a sessile, emarginate, yellow au- 
ricle at the base; in the other five, twice as long as the 
anthers and ascending, the auricle being elongated, sub- 
emarginate, and yellow. Pistil about as long as the 
longest stamens ; stigma blunt, small, greenish ; style gla- 
brous, declined in the opposite direction from the stamens, 
very slightly tapering upwards, articulated at its base ; 
Germen hoary, naked and blunt at the apex, included 
within the calyx-tube, of five blunt lobes, adhering to the 
calyx at the angles only, five-locular, dissepiments alter- 
nating with the lobes ; placente central ; ovules numerous. 
Graham. 
Fig. 1. Calyx. 2. Stamens. 3. Pistil :—magnified. 
