the flowers are nearly without braf&tes. That the leaves are alfo 
naturally deciduous, is confirmed by thefe drawings, for in one 
of them, in the poffeffion of A. B. LamBerr, Efq. a few {cat- 
tered old leaves remain, as in our figure; but in the other, 
preferved in the mufeum at the India-Houfe, and which was 
drawn from the life, by a Chinefe artift, at the Englifh factory, 
under the eye of Mr. Ker, there are no leaves but the 
young ones, which appear at the extremities of the flowering 
branches. Peduncles an inch and half long, recurved fo as to make 
the flower entirely cernuous. Calyx very fmall, five-cleft : feg- 
ments acute and minutely ciliate. Corol/a one-petaled, bell-fhaped: 
tube large: limb 5-cleft: Jacinie obtufe, revolute. At the bafe 
within the corolla are five hollow neétarjferous cavities, much 
as in the flowers of the Crown-Imperial*, making as many gib- 
bofities on the outfide. The corolla, though of one piece, eafily 
feparates into five. Stamens 10. Félaments inferted into the bale 
of the corolla, enlarged and villous a little above their bafe: 
Anthers two-awned. Germen five-cornered; angles projecting ; 
fides depreffed ; within 5-celled, each cell containing many feeds 
attached to the central receptacle. Siy/e ere€t, the length of the 
corolla. Stigma fhining green, fimple. We have not feen the 
ripe fruit, but Lourzrro fays that it is a five-celled derry. 
We are informed by Loursrro, that the fpecies which he 
has defcribed, is cultivated in Canton, where it grows to a 
moderate-fized fpreading tree ; and that flowering branches are 
preferved many days in porcelain veffels filled with water in the 
houfes of the mandarins, where they are highly pleafing to the 
eye, but have no fcent. And Mr. Ker, in a note which ac- 
companies the drawing at the India-Houfe, obferves that this 
handfome fhrub grows {pontaneoufly in the province of Canton, 
where it is held in a kind of veneration, and the flowers deemed 
an acceptable offering to the gods; and, accordingly, at the 
Chinefe new-year, which happens at the feafon of their blof- 
foming, large branches with flowers are hung up in all the 
temples. 
_. Flowers in January and February. 
For an opportunity of drawing and defcribing this very rare 
plant, which has probably never before been feen alive in 
Europe, we are indebted to Mr. Knicur, of the Exotic 
Nurfery, King’s-Road, Little Chelfea, 
*. From the omiffion of the real minute calyx in fome of the flowers, the 
turgefcency of the ne¢taries, too ftrongly defined in the figure, may be 
miftaken for this part. : ie 
