WHITFIELDIA LATERITIA. 
(Brick-coloured Whitfieldia.) 
Class. Order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
ACANTHACEiE. 
Generic Character.*—^?/.*? ample, coloured, sub- 
infundibuliform, with two bracts at the base, deeply 
four or five cleft; segments lanceolate, acute, erect, 
concave, nerved ; bracts mostly coloured, opposite, 
obovate, acute, three-nerved, appressed. Corolla be- 
tween campanulate and funnel-shaped, twice the 
length of the calyx ; tube with fifteen elevated ridges ; 
limb two-lipped, spreading ; upper lip smaller, two- 
cleft ; lower lip three-cleft, all the segments ovate, 
acute. Stamens four, didynamous, almost included, 
with an obsolete rudiment of a fifth. Filaments smooth. 
Anthers oblong- linear, two-celled; cells opposite, de- 
hiscing longitudinally. Ovary compressed, ovate, gla- 
brous, two-celled ; cells bi-ovulate ; ovules ascending*. 
Disk hypogynous, large, fleshy, cup-shaped. Style 
scarcely exceeding the stamens, thread-shaped. Stigma 
small, capitate. Fruit unknown. 
Specific Character.— Plant a smooth low-branching 
evergreen shrub. Branches spreading, terete, rather 
tortuous. Leaves opposite, entire, ovate or oblong- 
ovate, somewhat leathery, waved, penninerved. Petioles 
short, flat or slightly grooved above. Racemes terminal, 
somewhat one-sided, deflexed. Pedicels opposite (bra- 
chiate or cruciate), drooping, bracteated at the base. 
Bracteas lanceolate, partially membranaceous, the 
lowest pair leaf-like : two other large, ovate, acute, 
opposite bracteas at the base of the calyx, appressed 
to it. Flowers slightly pubescent ; calyx, corolla, and 
calycine bracts all brick-coloured. Stamens and style 
shorter than the corolla. 
About the middle of last November we were favoured with specimens of this 
handsome stove shrub, by Mr. Jennings, the Earl of Derby's gardener at Knowsley 
Hall, Lancashire, and from these our figure was prepared. Mr. Jennings informs 
us, that it was received there, in 1841, from Sierra Leone, and has proved an 
excellent thing, flowering through most of the winter months. Towards the close 
of last year, and for two or three months after, we observed specimens from the 
same source, flowering in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kcw. 
On bestowing the above appellation, Sir William Hooker observes, Qi As a 
genus of Acanthacese, I can refer it to no described one, though its affinity (yet 
not very close) is probably with Geissomeria, Lindl. ; and I have dedicated it to 
Thomas Whitfield, Esq., who at the risk of his life, and as we have reason to 
know, with much injury to his constitution, has made several voyages to, and 
journeys into, the interior of Western- tropical Africa, and formed extensive collec- 
tions of living plants and animals. The majority of these have been sent to the 
Right Hon. the Earl of Derby ; and the Royal Gardens of Kew have not failed 
to benefit by that distinguished nobleman's love and patronage of science." 
The species is a shrubby evergreen of good appearance, and will no doubt 
prove a useful thing in collections where it is essential to keep up a good display 
of blossom during the duller months. The blossoms are not remarkably bright- 
