may serve to distinguish them. The marking in the leaf, it 
is evident, is not at all constant. Rumpntus describes two 
sorts ; the first he calls white, from the white marking along’ 
- the midrib ; the other the red, taller, with larger leaves five 
or six inches long and three broad, of a lively brown (lete 
jfusea) on the under surface mixed with green on the upper ; 
the flowers of both are alike, except that those of the red sort 
are larger. Of this last kind, he says, there is still a variety, 
which some consider as a third species, with leaves in shape 
and size like those of the red, but marked in the middle with 
a broad spot of a bright red, or, as it were, fiery colour. 
The specimen of Justicia picta, preserved in the Banksian 
Herbarium, is very similar to our present plant, but has a 
broad spot near the middle of the leaf, which does not appear 
to us to have been white ; and Dr. Sotanper’s description 
makes no mention of the white marking, which, we suppose, 
is too subject to vary to afford any specific distinction. 
Whether Lowrziro’s plant be really the picta, is rendered 
doubiful, by his describing the upper lip of the corolla as 
quite entire andthe lower lip as bifid. 
The native country of Justicia picta is somewhat un- — 
certain ; for, although said to be a native of the East-Indies, 
both Rumpuivs and Rurepe speak of it as cultivated in the © 
gardens, but not indigenous, either on the Malabar coast or 
In Amboyna ;. and the circumstance of its never perfecting 
seeds there, renders it probable that it has been brought from 
a different climate. Ruzeps expressly says, that it was im- 
ported from China or the Manillas. — 
The common variety was cultivated before the year 1780, 
by the late Dr. Joun Foruereitt, in his garden at Upton. 
Our plant was kindly communicated by the Right Hon. the 
Marchioness of Baru, from Long-Leet garden, in May last ; 
and may certainly be considered as a very great rarity. 
eae 
