Nerium, PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIAz 3 
timber tree ; the wood white, remarkably light, but firm, 
and much used by Turners to make palkees; &c, where: 
light, strong wood is required. 
Stem (in plants six or seven years old) short, but- 
stfaight, and to the base decorated with numerous patent 
branches and branchlets. Bark of the ligneous parts ash- 
coloured. and smooth ; whole height from six to ten feet. 
escent. Leaves opposite, very short-petioled, bifa- 
rious, ovate-oblong, entire, long, taper-pointed, smooth on: 
both sides, dark green, from two to six inches long, and 
from one to two and a half broad Stipules, some short 
bristles in the axil of theleaves. Flowers terminal, soli- 
tary, tern, twice tern, or more, with one in the forks,’ 
short-peduncled, and pedicelled, large, of a deep, but ra~ 
ther dull red. Bractes opposite, lanceolate, waved. 
Calysx divided to the base into five, nearly equal, sub-_ 
cordate, smooth | segments, with somewhat waved mar= 
gins. Coral. Tube very short, fleshy, sub-campanulate.- 
Border divided into five, obliquely-obovate, thick, tough 
segments, soon after expansion they become revolute, 
Nectarium five-lobed ; crimson-coloured; lobes with 
rounded, somewhat crenulate margins and firmly unit-- 
ed to the base of the segments of the corol. Filaments 
very short and thick, inserted on the mouth of the tube 
of the corol, within the neetary. Anthers sagittate, united; 
and forming a conic dome over the stigma. Germ two- 
lobed ; each lobe one-celled, with numerous seeds at= 
tached to the incurved margins of the suture on the in 
side. Style cylindric. Stigma with two-lobed apex. 
Follicies two, linear, about as thick as the little finger; 
and nearly twelve inches long, olive-coloured, but ren- 
dered rough with elevated white specks. Seeds numer- 
ous, imbricated, linear-lanceelar, with very ample coma, 
pointing to the base of the follicle. Integuments two, — 
ane exterior ‘one rather thick; the interior onea thin 
e adhering to the embryo. Perisperm none. 
A2 
