610 



G ES 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



G ES 



top into two or three divisions, each terminated by one flesh- 

 coloured flower. The whole plant is smooth, and abounds 

 with a milky bitterish juice: calix usually seven-leaved. It 

 is an annual plant, and a native of Italy. 



3. Geropogon Hirsutum ; Rough Geropogon, Leaves hairy; 

 stalks upright, a foot high. It seldom divides into branches, 

 but is terminated by one flower: annual. Native of Italy. 



3. Geropogon Caliculatum ; Perennial Geropogon. Calices 

 calicled ; root perennial ; stems ascending, several, branched, 

 a foot or more high, villose, and leafy; flowers terminating, 

 nodding before they open; leaves sub-linear, acuminate, 

 the lowest stem-leaves and .the root-leaves channelled be- 

 neath, and hairy on both sides, the upper ones flat, and a 

 little hirsute only on the back; corolla yellow on both 

 sides ; receptacle naked. It flowers in June, and is a native 

 of Italy. 



Gesnena ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, superior, five-cleft, sharp, permanent. Corolla: one- 

 petalled, incurved and recurved; tube thickish, with a con- 

 tracted neck and funnel-form throat; border five-cleft, blunt; 

 upper divisions concave, three lower flat, spreading. Sta- 

 mina: filamenta four, shorter than the corolla; antherse 

 simple. Pistil: germen inferior, flatted; style filiform, the 

 same in situation and length with the stamina; stigma capi- 

 tate. Pericarp : capsule roundish, and crowned with the 

 patulous calix, subbilocular ; partition in the middle, longi- 

 tudinally interrupted. Seeds: extremely numerous, and very 

 small ; receptacles on each side fastened to the partition. 

 Observe: If the capsule be cut transversely near the top, it 

 appears to be one-celled ; if through the middle, two-celled. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-cleft, sitting on the 

 germen. CoroUa: incurved and recurved. Capsule: infe- 

 rior, two-celled. The species are, 



1. Gesneria Humilis; Low Oesneria. Leaves lanceolate, 

 serrate, sessile ; peduncles branched, many-flowered ; root 

 diffused, creeping; stem branched, naked at bottom ; pedun- 

 cles branched, three-flowered. Native of Carthagena, in 

 New Spain. This, like all the plants of the genus, is 

 propagated- by seeds, which must be procured from the 

 country where they naturally grow. They should be brought 

 over in their capsules, for as they are very small and light, 

 when they are separated from the. partition to which they 

 adhere, they soon lose their vegetative power. These 

 seeds should be gown in pots filled with light earth, and 

 plunged into a hot-bed of tanners' bark as soon as they ar- 

 rive, for they sometimes lie long in the ground : those which 

 Mr. Miller sowed in autumn, came up in the following spring ; 

 therefore when they happen to arrive here at that season, the 

 pots in which the seeds are sown should be plunged into the 

 tan-bed in the stove, and during the winter the earth should 

 be now and then gently watered, to prevent it from becom- 

 ing too dry, but at the same time it must not be made too 

 moist. In the spring, the pots should be removed out of the 

 stove, and plunged into a fresh hot-bed, which will -bring up 

 the plants soon after. When these are fit to remove, they 

 should be each planted in a separate pot, and plunged into 

 a good hot-bed of tan, observing to shade them fill they have 

 taken new root, and afterwards treat them in the same way 

 as other plants from the same countries. In autumn they 

 must be plunged into the tan-bed in the stove, where during 

 the winter they should have but little water given to them, 

 for if they receive much wet, it will destroy them : in this 

 stove the plants must constantly remain, for they will not 

 thrive when taken out of the tan. In the summer, free air 

 should always be admitted to them during warm weather, and 



they should at that time also be frequently refreshed with 

 water, but in small quantities. As the' plants advance in 

 growth, they will require larger pots, but there must be care 

 taken not to overpot them, for they will not thrive in large 

 pots. With this management, the plants will flower in the 

 second year, and may be continued three or four years ; but 

 they are not of long duration in their native country. 



2. Gesneria Acaulis ; Stemless Gesneria. Leaves lanceo- 

 late-ovate, serrate, snbpetioled, crowded at the end ; pedun- 

 cles three-rlowered, shorter than the leaf; stem round, woody, 

 having a clay-coloured bark, with some furrows in it, rising 

 three or four inches high, haying at the top very many ob- 

 long leaves, standing very thick, without any order, on loot- 

 stalks a quarter of an inch in length, covered with a reddish 

 wool-like moss. They are seven inches long, and an inch 

 and a half broad near the farther end, whence they narrow 

 'to a point, and also grow gradually narrower to the foot- 

 stalk 1 ; from the axils come out small peduncles, branched, 

 sustaining scarlet flowers an inch long, which are followed 

 by a short, fungous, cornered seed-vessel, having no distinct 

 cells, containing many small, oblong, yellowish seeds. 

 Browne calls it. Small-tufted Gesneria with scarlet flowers, 

 and observes, that the stem is always simple, creeping along 

 the rocks, and bearing a pretty large tuft of leaves at each 

 extremity, with single flowers springing from each axil. 

 Native of Jamaica. For its propagation and culture, see the 

 first species. 



3. -Gesneria Tomentosa ; Woolly Gesneria, Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, orenate, hirsute, seven or eight inches long, and 

 two and a half broad in the middle; peduncles lateral, very 

 long, corymbiferous. This rises with a shrubby stalk to the 

 height of six or seven feet, dividing into two or three irregu- 

 lar branches, covered with a russet wool ; corolla irregular, 

 subcampanulafe, gibbous at the base and under the limb ; the 

 two upper segments approximate, so as to form one as it were 

 that is bifid, arclied in the middle, spotted on the inside with 

 yellow and* dark purple; the three lateral ones are spreading, 

 ovate-acute, the lowest ventricose underneath ; the tube is 

 spotted within ; the two interior filamenta are longer than the 

 two others, and are bowed in towards the pistil ; anthers 

 convex. This plant bears some affinity to the saxifrages, in 

 the situation of the receptacles, and in the opening of the 

 capsule. Browne calls it the Hairy erect Gesneria with open 

 /lowers. Native of Jamaica. For its propagation and cul- 

 ture, see the first species. 



4. Gesneria Craniolaria. Leaves wedge-shaped, oblong, 

 tooth-lacyiiate ; peduncles terminating ; corollas bell-shaped. 

 It rises with a shrubby stalk to the height of ten or twelve 

 feet, dividing upwards into a few branches, which are gar- 

 nished with spear-shaped leaves, cut on their edges, these 

 are soft and hairy; the floWfers are produced from the side 

 of the branches, growing several together on the same foot- 

 stalk, they are shaped like those of the F'oxglove, of a green- 

 ish yellow colour, with brown spots on the inside ; the 

 flowers have a swelling tube, whic"h is recurved ; and the 

 brim is slightly divided into five unequal segments. They 

 appear in July, but are not succeeded by seeds in England. 

 This sort grows naturally at the Havannah, and in some 

 other islands of America. 



5. Gesneria Grandis. Leaves broad-lanceolate, very long, 

 toothletted, rough-haired above, rugged beneath ; peduncles 

 terminating ; stem arborescent. Native of Jamaica. 



6. Gesneria Scabra. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, serrate, 

 nisrged; peduncles axillary; corollas cylindric, recurved. 

 This is a shrubby plant, and a native of Jamaica. 



7. Gesneria Corymbosa. Leaves ovate, acute, serrate 



