Tas. 4533. 
MEDINILLA maenirica. 
Magnificent Medinilla. 
Nat. Ord. MetastomMacE&®.—DeEcanpRIA Monoeynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4321.) 
MEDINILLA magnifica (§ Sarcoplacuntia) ; glabra, ramis compressis tetrapteris ad 
nodos setosis, foliis amplis oppositis coriaceis glabris sessilibus obovato- 
oblongis cordatis subamplexicaulibus cuspidatis infra medium triplinerviis 
pone basin pinnato-costatis, paniculis terminalibus oblongis pendulis, ramis 
verticillatis, bracteis maximis corollatis quaternatis multinerviis deciduis, 
floribus decandris. - Lindl. et Pazt. 
MEDINILLA magnifica. Lindl, et Paxt. Fl. Gard. v. 1. t. 12. 
MeEDINILLA bracteata. Hort. Veitch, (non Blume.) 
This fine plant, truly deserving the name of magnifica, when 
first exhibited by Messrs. Veitch at the early spring meeting of 
the Horticultural Society (where a large medal was awarded to 
it), bore the name of I. bracteata, given to it probably by 
Mr. Veitch, or by his collector Mr. Thomas Lobb, under an 
impression that it would prove to be the plant so named of 
Java, by Blume, who afterwards, however, referred that plant to 
a new genus, Dactyliote. A slight comparison, however, with 
the description may show that it has nothing to do with that 
plant, and it is by mistake that it is stated by Lindley and 
Paxton to be a native of Java at all. The present species was 
detected at Manilla, and sent thence to Messrs. Veitch’s nursery, 
and proves to be one of the most showy and ornamental plants 
that has ever been imported. We thought highly of Medinilla 
speciosa (vide supra, Tab. 4321); but the leaves are here much 
finer (a foot long), the panicle a foot and a half long, the flowers 
far more numerous, and the noble and delicately-coloured bracts 
add greatly to the charms of the shrub. Its most beautiful 
state is, perhaps, before the full perfection of the flowers, when 
the large imbricated bracts begin to separate, and allow the buds 
to be partially seen. As the expansion of the blossoms advances, 
the upper bracts fall off, but the lower ones remain and become 
SEPTEMBER Ist, 1850. 
