No. 677. 
DORSTENIA DRAKENA. 
nes Order, 
MONG@CIA TETRANDRIA. 
We are indebted to our worthy friend, 
Mr. Shepherd, of Liverpool, for this curious 
plant, which is a native of Vera Cruz. Its 
height is about nine or ten inches, and it 
has no stem, but the flower stalks spring 
immediately from the root, as do the leaves, 
which are few, and about nine or ten inches 
in length, smooth, and very deeply lobed: 
the staminiferous ones seemed to expand at 
one time, and the pistilliferous ones at ano- 
ther, on the same receptacle. 
The roots of this, and one or two other 
species, furnish the Contrayerva of the 
shops. 
It requires the stove, and may be increased 
now and then, by dividing its roots: the soil 
should be loam and peat. 
