LIBONIA AND JACOBINIA 455 



2 feet long. Flowers white or rosy; June to September. The var. 

 latifolius is in all respects larger, and more desirable. 



A. SPINOSUS (spiny). Flowering stem 3 to 4 feet high. Leaves 

 deeply and regularly cut into tooth-like lobes, each ending in a short 

 spine. Flowers purplish; calyx spiny; June to September. The var. 

 spinosissimus has the leaves blistered, the spines white, and the flowers 

 rosy, with recurved spines. 



The Acanthus is easily grown where it can have a 

 any position, a deep soil, and elbow-room; though we 

 have seen line self-sown specimens growing in the partial shade of a 

 wood among Hart's-tongue Ferns. They should be planted in such 

 positions as will enable their bold foliage to be seen to advantage, with- 

 out fear of confusion with other plants. They may be propagated by 

 means of seeds, which usually require a little heat for their germination, 

 or by dividing the roots. 



LIBONIA AND JACOBINIA 



Natural Order Acanthace^. Genus Jacobinia 



Jacobixia (a commemorative name given by Moricand, but in whose 

 honour it is not clear). A genus of about thirty species of stove or 

 greenhouse herbs and shrubs with somewhat leathery, opposite leaves, 

 and large yellow or red flowers, with deeply five-cleft calyx, a two-lipped 

 corolla, two stamens, a two-lobed stigma, and a two-celled capsule. They 

 are natives of Tropical America. 



The plants, here associated by Bentham and Hooker, 



were formerly separated in several genera, and the species 

 represented in Plate 217 is best known as Lihonia florihunda, the name 

 which appears beneath it. Jacobinia coccinea was introduced in 1770, 

 but the other species known in gardens are of much more recent intro- 

 duction — /. ghiesbreghtiana dating only from 1843, and /. florihunda 

 from 1862. L. penrhosiensis is a hybrid produced by crossing J. 

 florihunda with J. ghiesbreghtiana. 



Jacobinia coccinea (scarlet). Stem 2 to 5 feet high. 



Leaves stalked, elliptical, 6 to 9 inches long. Flowers 

 scarlet, in large, erect, terminal spikes ; November. Stove shrub. 

 Native of South America. 



J. (Libonia) floribunda (abundant -flowered). Stems shrubby, 

 branched from the base, 1 to 2 feet high. Leaves elliptic-oblong. 



