74 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



GESNERACEAE 



With Annotated List of the Genera and Species which have 

 been Introduced to Cultivation. 



By Col. E, H. Beddome, F.L.S. 



A very beautiful order, almost every plant of which grows most readily 

 from cuttings, chiefly represented in the western tropics of America and 

 the adjacent islands. In the East, however, we have the beautiful genus 

 Aeschynanthus, besides Chirita, Didymocarpus, Jerdonia, Agal- 

 myla, Stauranthera, Lysionotus, and Boea ; also other genera not 

 referred to here, as they are not showy enough to find a place in our 

 conservatories. Africa yields Saintpaulia, Streptocarpus, and Acan- 

 thonema ; Australia, Fieldia ; New Zealand, Rhabdothamnus ; 

 Chili, Mitraria and Sarmienta, greenhouse plants ; the mountains of 

 Europe, the well-known hardy plants Haberlea and Ramondia ; and 

 finally Japan, Conandron. 



The plants of this order are mostly herbaceous perennials, many of 

 which adorn our stoves all the year round ; a few only are shrubby. 



Amateurs wishing to make a collection of this order should consult 

 Continental catalogues (Lemoine, Van Houtte, Roozen, and others), as it 

 there receives far more attention than in England ; and the hybridising of 

 such genera as Gesnera, Achimenes, Isoloma, and Naegelia, &c. has 

 received much attention for many years, though it does not seem to have 

 been taken up in this country — why I have often wondered, for they 

 evidently hybridise very readily, and few plants could be more charming 

 than some of the Gesneras, Naegelias, and Isolomas, which often combine 

 very lovely foliage with beautiful flowers, can be had in flower nearly all 

 the year round, and are most easily grown even by amateurs. Many of 

 our nurserymen fill houses with different-coloured varieties of Sinningia 

 speciosa (so-called Gloxinias) and almost entirely neglect all other 

 gesneraceous plants, Streptocarpus being an exception, as this has been 

 hybridised with splendid results. Through many years that I have been 

 growing these plants I have taken notes which I here condense for the 

 benefit of lovers of the order, and I hope that the result of this catalogue 

 may be that more attention will be given to the order in this country. 

 Some genera, such as the lovely Triehonantha (" Bot. Mag." 5428) and 

 many species of various genera, are, I fear, now lost to cultivation here — 

 at least I have not been able to trace them. 



It may be here stated that many species of Isoloma and Columnea, 

 as well as Dolichoderia and others, come from considerable elevations 

 on mountains, and will stand or indeed require cooler treatment than is 

 generally given. 



Acanthonema Strigosum (fig. "Bot. Mag." 5339).— Fernando Po ; 



4,000 5,000 feet elevation. On rocks and epiphytic on trees 



