the 



QABOSe GUIDE. 



February, 1864. 

 CULTTJEE OP EONDELETIA. 



MONGr tlie most truly aristocratic plants that adorn 

 our stoves, and give character to exhibitions, the 

 Eondeletia and the Ixora have a very conspicuous 

 place. Well grown specimens, when in their full 

 blaze of colour, are in fact unique for splendour, and 

 of the two, Ixora will always claim pre-eminence for 

 beauty. "We might consider these two genera together, for 

 they both belong to the same natural order, and they assimi- 

 late very closely in habit and constitution. But experience has taught 

 us that the less we associate different genera the better, when it is in- 

 tended to give specific instructions respecting them, for as every genus 

 has its structural characters by which it is distinguished from all the 

 rest, so each has its special needs and peculiarities of growth, and fre- 

 quently it becomes necessary to bestow upon a species more caro than 

 upon all the other members of the family to which it belongs. We 

 shall therefore deal with Eondeletia for the present, and defer the con- 

 sideration of Ixora for a future occasion. 



The genus Eondeletia is named after Eondelet, a French botanist 

 of the sixteenth century. It belongs to the important natural order of 

 Cinclionads, the characters of which are — inflorescence cymose ; calyx 

 superior ; corolla monopetalous, tubular ; stamens inserted upon the 

 corolla, and alternate with its lobes; ovary inferior, two or many celled ; 

 style sometimes divided, stigma simple or divided ; fruit inferior, two or 

 many celled, dry or succulent. Linnajan system Pentandria monogynia. 

 The genus occurs chiefly in America and the West Indies, and though 

 closely allied to plants of the highest renown in pharmacy, appears 

 never to have been applied to any useful purposes. There are about 

 fifteen species of Eondeletia known, acd they date back to 1752, when 

 R. Americana, with white flowers, was introduced. The other known 

 species are as follows : — R. discolor, red, native of New Granada ; R. 

 hirsuta, yellow, Jamaica, 1820 ; R. hirta, pink, Jamaica, 1776 ; R. 



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