II 
[Plate 53.] 
THE LILAC THTESACANTH. 
(THYRSACANTHUS LILACINUS.) 
A Hothouse Shrubs from Tropical America, hehnging to the Natural Order of Acanthads. 
^ptctffr C^aractn:, 
THE LILAC THYRSACANTH. Leaves oblong, stalked, 
wrinkled, acute, downy on the under side, as are the 
branches. Inflorescence very erect, close, compact, naked, 
with a downy axis. Sepals pubescent, with very fine 
long points. Corolla smooth ; its lobes glandular inside ; 
the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower closely reflexed. Sterile 
stamens awl-shaped at the point. 
THYRSACANTHUS LILACINUS; foliis oblongis petiola- 
tis rugosis acutis subtus ramisq^ue tomentosis,inflorescentia 
stricta nud^, axi tomentosa, sepalis pubescentibus setaeeo- 
acuminatis, corollse glabra3 laciniis intus glandulosis, 
labio supremo bilobo inferiore arete deflexo, staminibus 
sterilibus apice subulatis. 
Justicia lilacina of the Gardens, 
s 
contracted into a slender tube; 
ed. the fourtli erect, oblong, 2-lo 
gments 
-lobed, inflated at the base, then 
inside; three oval, nearly equal, 
fertile, lying beneath the fourth 
flpshv. linear. 2-celled. with 
petal; 2 others subulate, sterile, enclosed in the tube. Anthers fleshy, linear, 2-celled, 
parallel nearly equal lobes. Ovary linear-oblong, seated on a roundish torus, 2-celled, many-seeded. 
Stigma minute, 2-toothed." 
Such were the memoranda made by us when this plant was under examination. They rendered 
it evident that it was a species of TIiyrBacanthus, a genus carved by Nees von Esenbect out of the 
farrago called Justicia by previous writers, of wliich the common white-flowered Justicia nitid'a is the 
most familiar example. Among the species enumerated by this writer, one more especially, his 
agree in character with 
That 
figured it under the name 
n2 
