T)r Graliani\s Dtscriptiwi of New or Hare Plants. 373 



the calyx, unilocular ; ovules numerous, inserted into the central recep 

 tacle. 

 The essential character usually assipjned to this jilant seems to me so in- 

 adequate to distinguish it from />. Meadia^ that I more than doubted 

 whether they ought to be considered specifically distinct ; and I was 

 only induced to examine them with greater care last funimer, after the 

 repeated assertion of Mr Macnab, that, when cultivated in precisely the 

 same way, and in the same border, the D. iideyrifolium always produced 

 abundance of perfect seeds, the D. Meadia never one. It flowers later 

 than D. Meadia^ and is darker in the colour of the flower, but the chief 

 essential distinction, if there be any, must, 1 think, be taken from the 

 blunt anthers, the greater length of the dark connective, and the longer 

 filaments. 



Pogostemon plectranthoides. 



P. plectranthoides ; caule fruticoso, ramulis loraentosis ; foliis ovatis, in- 

 aequaliter serratis, subacuminatis, utrinque pubescentibus ; paniculis 

 terminalibus, coarctatis ; bracteis ovatis, acutis, ciliatis, utrinque pu- 

 bescentibus, calyce longioribus; corollae tubo calycibus longiori. 

 Pogostemon plectranthoides, Desf. — Spreng. Syst. Veg. 2. 'l2\.~^Benth. 

 in Wall. Cat. Herb. Ind. No. 1530, a, specimen from Kamoun. — Ibid. 

 Bot. Regist. fol. 1282. 

 Description — Stem woody erect, obscurely four-sided, more distinctly so 

 in the branches, very slightly swollen at the joints; bark pale brown, 

 slriatetl, tomentoso-pubescent on the yourg shoots. Leaves (5 inches 

 long, 2^ broad) opposite, petioled, spreading, ovate, subacuminate, coarsely 

 and unequally serrated, entire and subcuneate at the base, pubescent on 

 both sides, veined, the middle rib and primary veins (which pass ob- 

 liquely forward) prominent behind ; petiole about a fourth part of the 

 length of the leaf, channelled above, pubescent. Flowers in terminal 

 bracteate panicles; ra4;his and its branches tomentoso-pubescent, sprinkled 

 with purple spots, which are also seen on the back of the uppermost 

 leaves and the lower side of their petioles ; bractece ovate, acute, strongly 

 ciliated, pubescent on both sides, spotted with purple. Calyr green, 

 scarcely spotted, clavate, pubescent, shorter than the bractece, ft-cleft, 

 segments acute, subequal, the lowest rather the longest. Corolla white, 

 tube slightly compressed laterally, declined ; limb scarcely so long as the 

 lube, bilabiate, upper lip erect, trifid, segments blunt, pubescent on the 

 outside, slightly reflexed at their apices, the central the smallest; lower lip 

 simple, lanceolate, acute, glabrous, deflected. Stamens exserted, distant 

 deflected; filaments twice as long as the corolla, lilac, and covered on 

 their outer sides at the middle with long lilac moniliform hairs ; anthers 

 pale yellow, unilocular, and bursting by a slit a little to one side of their 

 vertex, forming two rather unequal valves. Style lilac, glabrous, bifid. 

 Stigmata minute, terminal. Germen 4-lobcd, placed on a cylindrical disk. 

 The seeds of this plant, communicated by I^ord Meadowbank, were re- 

 ceived at the Botanii- (i.uden, Edinburgh, from the Mauritius in 1830. 

 It blosscmied in the stove for the first time in January and February 

 1833, the blossoms coming in succession for a long while. Whatever it 

 has of beauty is derived from its long, lilac, bearded stamens. 

 I have referred above to the Kamoun specimen in Wallich's herbarium, 

 because our plant is identical with this ; but more careful examination 

 may induce Mr Bentham to consider the specimens from the other sta- 

 tions distinct. It is possible that it may have been introduced into 

 Mauritius from India. 

 I do not know in what work Desfontaines described the species, and have 

 not been able to quote it. The number of species in my possession is 

 too small to enable me^with confidence to draw up a specific character ^ 

 and that given by Sprehgel is in several respects inaccurate. 



