1350 



GLORIOSA 



GLOXINIA 



G. abyssinica, Rich., said to be the largest-fld. species, seems not 

 to be in cult. -G. Leopoldii, Hort., a beautiful form with yellow 

 and purple fls., is probably some form of G. simplex grandiflora. 

 G.C. III. 36:188. R.H. 1903:548. N. TAYLOR. t 



GLORY-OF-THE-SNOW: Chionodoxa. 



GLORY PEA: Clianthus. 



GLOSSOCOMIA CLEMATfDEA: Codonopsis dematidea. 



GLOXINERA (Gloxinia and Gesneria). Gesneriacese. 

 A bigeneric hybrid between Gesneria pyramidalis (seed- 

 parent) and Gloxinia Radiance, by Veitch and first 

 exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society, London, 

 May 8, 1894. It has the habit of a garden gloxinia, 

 with inclined fls. of fair size, brilliant scarlet tinged 

 with magenta in the shadows. The foliage is recorded 

 as more nearly that of a gloxinia than a gesneria in 

 appearance, being very succulent and covered with fine 

 hairs. G.C. III. 17:145. 



GLOXINIA (named for P. B. Gloxin, of Strassburg, 

 who wrote in 1785). Gesneridcese. The genus Gloxinia 

 was founded by L'Heritier in 1785 upon G. maculata 

 of Brazil. Early in last century a related Brazilian 

 plant was introduced, and it attracted much attention: 

 this plant was named Gloxinia speciosa by Loddiges in 

 his Botanical Cabinet in 1817, and it was there figured. 

 In the same year it was figured by Ker in the Botanical 

 Register, and also by Sims in the BotanicaF Magazine. 

 Sims wrote that the plant was "already to be found in 

 most of the large collections about town [London]." 

 These writers refer the plant to the Linnaean class 

 Didynamia, but Ker also suggests that it may belong 

 to the Campanulacese. This Gloxinia speciosa was the 

 forerunner and leading parent of the garden gloxinias, 

 but it turns out that the plant really belongs to Nees' 

 genus Sinningia, founded in 1825 on a Brazilian plant 

 which he named S. Helleri; but the rules of nomen- 

 clature make the tenable name to be Sinningia speci- 

 6sa, Benth. & Hook. (See Sinningia.) All the gar- 

 den gloxinias are 

 therefore sinning- 

 ias, but to gar- 

 deners they will 

 ever be known 

 as gloxinias; there- 

 fore, the evolution 

 of them may be 

 traced here. 



stigma. The garden gloxinias belong to the subgenus 

 Ligeria (subgenus of Sinningia), which has a short st. or 

 trunk, and a broad-limbed bell-shape fl. Gloxinia has 

 perhaps a half-dozen species from Mex. to Brazil and 

 Peru; Sinningia has about 20 species, in Brazil. 



Gloxinia has no 

 tubers: Sinningia has 

 a tuberous rhizome. 

 Gloxinia has a ring-like 

 or annual disk about 

 the ovary: Sinningia 

 has 5 distinct glands. 

 The sinningias are 



either stemless or st.-bearing, with a trumpet-shape or 

 bell-shape 5-lobed and more or less 2-lipped corolla, a 

 5-angled or 5-winged calyx, 4 stamens attached to the 

 base of the corolla, and with anthers cohering at the 

 tips in pairs, and a single style with a concave or 2-lobed 



1656. A good gloxinia plant. 



The true gloxinias are not florists' flowers, and they 

 are little known in cultivation. They are apparently not 

 in the American trade. The old G. maculata is figured in 

 the Garden 39:801 (p. 364), and it is probably to be 

 found in choice collections in the Old World. It pro- 

 duces knotty rootstocks, which, as well as the leaves, 

 may be used for propagation. It is also figured in B.M. 

 1191. G. glabrata, Zucc., from Mexico, is the G. glabra, 

 Hort., Achimenes gloxiniaeflora, Forkel, and Plectopoma 

 gloxiniflorum, Hanst. It is a stemmy plant, bearing 

 white flowers with yellow-spotted throat; B.M. 4430, 

 as G. fimbriata, Hook. Plectopoma is now referred to 

 Achimenes, and the plant then takes the name Achi- 

 menes glabrata, Fritsch. It appears not to be in the 

 trade. Other related genera are Diastema, Dicyrta 

 and Isoloma. 



The garden gloxinias (genus Sinningia) are nearly 

 stemless plants, producing several or many very showy 

 bell-like flowers, each on a long stem. G. (Sinningia) 

 speciosa originally had drooping flowers, but the result of 

 continued breeding has produced a race with flowers 

 nearly or quite erect (Figs. 1655, 1656). The deep bell 

 of the gloxinia is very rich and beautiful, and the erect 

 position is a decided gain. The flowers also have been 

 increased in size and number, and varied in shape and 

 markings; the leaves also have become marked with gray 

 or white. The color of the original Gloxinia (Sinningia) 

 speciosa was a nearly uniform purple. The modern 

 races have colors in white, red, purple and all inter- 

 mediate shades, some are blotched, and others are fine- 

 spotted or sprinkled with darker shades. It is probable 

 that the larger part of the evolution in the common 

 greenhouse gloxinia is a direct development from the 

 old G. speciosa, but hybridity may have played a 

 part. One of the earliest recorded series of hybrids 

 (1844) was with Sinningia guttata, which is a plant 

 with an upright stem and bearing rather small spotted 

 flowers in the axils of the leaves. (B. R. 1112.) 

 The issue of this cross showed little effect of the S. 

 guttata, except a distinct branching habit in some of 

 the plants (B.R. 30:48). It is possible, however, that 

 S. guttata has had something to do with the evolution 

 of the spots on the present-day flower, although the 

 original G. speciosa was striped and blotched in the 

 throat. The student who wishes to trace some of the 



