Tas. 4771. 
EXACUM macranrtuvum. 
Large-flowered Exacum. 
Nat. Ord. GenTIANEm.—PENTANDRIA MonoGynia. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, Tas. 4340.) 
Exacum macranthum ; caule teretiusculo subsimplici, foliis sessilibus elliptico- 
lanceolatis basi apiceque magis minusve attenuatis trinerviis, calycis 5-par- 
titi segmentis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis, alis semisubulatis, corolle in- 
tense purpurez lobis late ovatis acuminatis, antheris in conum conniventibus, 
stylo declinato. 
Exacum macranthum. Arn. in Ann. des Se. Nat. v.11. p.175. Griseb. Gent. 
p. 111. in De Candolle Prodr. v. 9. p. 46. 
For our first knowledge of this most lovely gentianoid plant 
we are indebted to the late Mrs. General Walker, who communi- 
cated specimens to us from the mountains of Ceylon, elevation 
6000 feet, and we owe the possession of it in our gardens to our 
valued friend Mr. Thwaites, who sent the seeds from Ceylon 
about two years ago, to Kew and to Dublin. Mr. Moore, of the 
Glasnevin Botanical Garden, Dublin, was so good as to forward 
a living flowering plant to us in December, 1853, from which 
our present drawing and description are made. ‘The flowers 
bear no small resemblance to those of the well-known Solanum 
Amazonicum (Nycterium, Ker), especially in the connivent sta- 
mens and declinate style; but the colour of the flower is a much 
deeper and richer purple. The bright stamens are well set off in 
contrast with the purple of the corolla. It has been cultivated 
hitherto in a stove; but there is reason to suppose that it will 
prove only an annual, or biennial at most. It is a species at 
once distinguished from Heacum Zeylanicum (Tab. nostr. 4423), 
by the terete stems and sharp lobes of the corolla. 
Descr. Root imperfectly fusiform and branched. Stem a foot 
to near a foot and a half high (in our Herbarium), nearly terete 
the whole length, glabrous, copiously leafy below, distantly so 
MARCH Ist, 1854, 
