29 
GESNERIA DOUGLASII; var. VERTICILLATA. 
(mr. Douglas's gesneria ; whorled-leavkd variety.) 
class. order. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
GESNERIACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Vide vol. i. p. 224. 
Specific Character. — Plant herbaceous. Root tuberous. Leaves produced in whorls around the 
middle of the stem, ovate, crenate. Flowers terminal, pedunculate, umbelled. Corolla with a 
nearly equal limb. 
Var. Verticillata. — Peduncles usually simple, very dense, whorled. 
Were a sectional division of the genus Gesneria desirable, it might with great 
facility and propriety be separated into two parts ; viz. those species which possess 
corollas with a bilabiate limb, and such as have them expansive and nearly equally 
divided. With the latter section would be classed the fine variety here figured. 
An interesting deviation from the usual scarlet colour of the corolla of the 
species, is exhibited in our present subject. It is also greatly superior to G. 
Douglasii in habit, in foliage, and in the size and beauty of its flowers. The hue 
of its blossoms is not brilliant, but it is delicate and of various shades, while the 
numerous spots or streaks render it still more attractive. The dense clusters or 
whorls in which they are produced, the long, slender, red peduncles on which they 
are supported, and the showy crimson petioles and veins of the leaves, all tend in 
some measure to heighten the appearance of the plant, and multiply its claims to 
attention. 
Tubers of this variety were originally imported by J. Allcard, Esq., from Rio, 
and in the collection of that gentleman it first produced its flowers in April, 1836. 
From G. Douglasii it differs, as we before observed, in the greater size of all its 
parts ; but the character which forms its principal distinction, and from which it 
has received the name by which it now appears, is the disposition of its inflo- 
rescence in whorls, whereas, in the original species, it is produced irregularly, and 
in a decided panicle. 
