220 



POPULAR GARDEN BOTANY. 



solitary. Calyx half-adherent, five-parted. Corolla monope- 

 talous, tubular, more or less irregular, five-lobed. Stamens two 

 or four, didymous ; anthers often cohering. Fruit capsular or 

 succulent, superior, one-celled. Leaves rough, generally opposite 

 or whoiied. — Meshy herbs or shrubs, natives of hot humid cli- 

 mates, and of great beauty. 



GESNEBIA: 



Gen. Char. {Bidynamia Angiuspe?°mia.) Calyx five-cleft; co- 

 rolla incurved and recurved ; capsule two-celled ; seeds several. 



Named after Gesner, of Zurich, a famous botanist. Beau- 

 tiful plants from Mexico and South America, most of them 

 requiring the stove, as Cooperii, faucialis, polyantlia, ze- 

 Irina, etc., the flowers of which are either scarlet or crim- 

 son; mollis has them of a brown-orange hue; Douglasii 

 has them spotted, and there are many others very beautiful ; 

 these may occasionally be placed in the greenhouse, but 

 they will not live there. The species reflexa with dazzling 

 scarlet, and longifolia with crimson flowers, will thrive in the 

 cooler air of the greenhouse ; also Gardneri, with purplish- 

 red flowers ; faucialis is said also to bear the atmosphere 

 of the greenhouse without injury, as well as bulbosa, with 

 scarlet flowers. 



These beautiful plants may be increased by dividing the 



