320 HOKTUS JAMAICENSia ..oe3\8M4> 



No English mme. GESNERIA. 



Ci,. 14, 011.2. Dldynamia angiospermic. Nat. or. Persona(a\ 



This was so named by Plumier, in honour ofCoiirad Gesner of Zaricji, a famous-, 

 , botapist and natural historian. 



Cen. THAR. Calyx a one-leafed perianth, superior, five-cleft, sharp, permanent; 

 corolla one-petaled, incurved and recurved, tube thickish, with a contracted neck 

 and tunnel-fonn throat; bor.ler five cleft, blunt; unper divisions concave, three 

 lower flat, spreading; the stanens are four fiiamant^, shorter tttan the corolla, 

 with simple anthers ; the pistil has an inferior germ, flatted ; a fi Vorm style, the 

 same in situation and lenp;th with the stamens ; stig.na capitate ; t e pericarp is a 

 roundish cajjsule, crowned with the patulous calyx, su!i-biloculai \ partition in 

 the middle longitudinally interrupted : (Swartz says, if cut transvei iely near the 

 top, it appears one-celled ; if through the middle two-celled) ; seeds extreinely 

 numerous, and very small ; peceptacles on each side fastened to the partition. 

 Eleven species of tliis genus have been fouad in Jamaica. 



1. PULCHELLA, BF.AUTIFUL. 



Achimenes 2. Minor, erecta, si'^-'ple.v ; f<'Uis crenatis, ovatis, op^ 

 posit is vel ternatis ; Jloribiis petiolatis singularibiis ad alas. Browne^ 

 p. 271, t. 30, f. 1. 



Herbaceous; leaves ternate, ovate, acute, serrate, villous ; peduncles axillary, . 

 one-flowered. 



This is an elegant little plant, seldom growing above fourteen inches high, and has 

 been found near the Hope lliver, and in other p.uTs of the low mountains in Liguaiiea. 

 The root is branched, fibrous, stoloniferous. The young shoots resemble aments or 

 catkins, are cyhndric, and closely imbricate, with ovate pubescent scales, thickened 

 at the base, emarginate, and red. Stems several, almost upright, branched, round, 

 covered thick widi a fine do>vn, dusky purple, herbaceous ; branches ternate, spread- 

 ing ; the stem leaves are in threes, on the branches usually opposite, ovate, or ovate- 

 lanceolate, sharp at both ends, loosely serrate, entire at the base, vvith nerves p'Omi- 

 nent below, .grooved above, villose en both sides, green, beneath paler, and frequently 

 blood-red: petioles round on one side, oa the other flattish and slightly chainelied, 

 one-third the length of the leaves.. Flowers resembling those of ruellia, axillary, so- 

 litary, peduncled, inclined, red; peduncles spreading very much, round, villose, 

 red, twice the length of the petioles ; calyx villose, ending in a turbinate germ, red 

 at the base : tube of the corolla pubescent, of a fine vermillion colour ; throat tricallous 

 at bottom, with oblong tubercles, hollowed outwards, each opposite to each segment; 

 tiie opening of the lime of a rich carmine colour. Besides the four fertile filaments, 

 there is a fifth superio-r to and shorter than the others, which has no anther. Tiiis 

 plant has been made a new genus, cyrilla, as it differs from the other species of gesne^ 

 ria, by its funnel-form corolla, with a cylindric straight tube, and aflat almost equal, 

 border. Browne says it thrives best in a cool gravelly soil, well furnished with mois- 

 ture, and intermixed widi rich mould ; and that oa aecouut of its beauty and elegance, 

 it. should be cultivated iu flower gardens, . 



3, ACAUH^>. 



