" This plant appears to be very commonly cultivated in Indian 

 gardens, chiefly on account of its great fragrance. The leaves are 

 frequently eaten with bread and butter, or bruised and mixed with 

 various articles of food, drink, or medicine. It is probably also indi- 

 genous in that country ; but in all the East Indian collections which 

 I have seen, the specimens are taken from gardens, unless those 

 marked as gathered at Patna in Hamilton's Herbarium be really 

 wild. "Roxburgh, in his MS. Flora, obligingly communicated to 

 me by Dr. Wallich, speaks of this plant as common in almost every 

 garden, where, however, it seldom flowers. A species closely allied 

 to it (my C. crassifolius) was gathered by Dr. Wight in the mountains 

 of Dindygul, in the southern parts of the Peninsula. Loureiro's 

 C. amboinicus, the original type of the genus, appears to be certainly 

 referable to one of the above species, and probably to this one ; and 

 he gives as its locality, ' in hortis Cochinchinse et in variis Indise 

 locis preesertim humidis.' It is not impossible that the C. aromaticus 

 and crassifolius may be but varieties of the same, and that Loureiro's 

 C. amboinicus includes them both ; but I have at present scarcely 

 data sufficient to determine this point. The descriptions both of 

 Loureiro and Rumphius agree very well with the C. aromaticus. 



" The cultivated specimens of this plant often afford a remarkable 

 instance of a return to the normal structure of the sexual organs of 

 the Labiatse, and confirm the theory stated by De Candolle, in his 

 observations on the Salvia cretica, in the Quatrieme Notice sur les 

 Plantes rares du Jardin de Geneve. The style of this Coleus is fre- 

 quently divided into 3, 4, or even 5, in which case the ovaria are 

 constantly double the number of the divisions of the style; and by 

 their disposition shew that two of them always belong to each division. 

 They are, however, even in their earliest stage, constantly distinct and 

 separate from each other; and on this account, admitting that the 

 pistillum of the Labiatse is derived from five verticillate leaves, of 

 which the mid-rib forms the style, and the limbus on each side curls 

 inwards, so as to form the two ovaria, of which five leaves, two only 

 in ordinary cases, or in that of the present plant three, four, or the 

 whole five, are developed ; yet, when that fruit is arrived at maturity, 

 the mid-rib being obliterated, and the two lateral lobes remaining, as 

 they always were, perfectly distinct, I cannot consider them as forming 

 one body ; and therefore, in describing the ordinary state of the fruit, 

 I think it far more intelligible, as well as more conformable to the 

 evidence of the senses, to speak of it as consisting of four separate 

 achenia than of two two-celled carpella. 



"■ Those flowers which have the above multiplication of styles 

 have also the stamina nearly distinct from their base, and have often 

 the fifth stamen, and an irregular increase in the number of lobes of 

 the corolla." 



For the foregoing remarks we are indebted to the kindness of 

 Mr. Bentham. Our drawing was made in the Garden of the Horti- 

 cultural Society, where it is cultivated in the stove, and flowers from 

 March to May. It is readily increased by cuttings. 



In gardens it is often called Gesneria odorata. 



J. L. 



