COMBRETUM GRANDIFLOR UM. 
(Large-flowered Combretum.) 
Class Order. 
OCTANDRIA, MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
COMBRETACKiE. 
Generic Character. — Calpx with a four-toothed 
deciduous limb. Petals four or five, inserted at the top 
of the calyx. Stamens eight to ten, exserted. Ovaries 
two to five, ovulate. Style filiform. Fruit four or five- 
winged, Seed one, pendulous. — Don's Gard. and Botany. 
Spkcific Character, — Ptoni an evergreen shrub. 
Stems climbing, hairy when young. Leaves opposite, 
oblong, acute, hairy. Spikes short, axillary, or ter- 
minal. JSmci5 ovately oblong, CaZj/j? pubescent. Floivers 
large, secund, not expansive, bright crimson-scarlet. 
Corolla with erect, obovate, obtuse petals. Stamens 
long. 
From the botanical catalogues we gather that this handsome plant was intro- 
duced to England from Sierra Leone in 1824. Yet it cannot have been much 
diffused at that time, and has possibly been altogether lost ; for it is only lately 
that we have met with it in a flowerino; condition, in one of the stoves of 
Mrs. Lawrence, Ealing Park. From this establishment we were privileged with 
the opportunity of drawing it in June last. 
It does not possess that copiousness of inflorescence, which is apparent in the 
freely-branching and elegant spikes of the old C. purpureum^ (now Poivrea coccinea)^ 
but its habit and foliage are rather superior to those of that plant, and the peculiarity 
in its mode of flowering must be considered a recommendation, inasmuch as it afl'ords 
an essential variety in a collection of stove climbers. 
The growth of this species is somewhat freer than that of the plant just named, 
its leaves are a trifle larger and better, and the young branches have a more elegant, 
graceful, and wavy aspect ; or, in other words, are relieved of that rigidity and 
shrubbiness, which rather detract from the appearance of P. coccinea as a climbing 
plant. The blossoms are arranged in altogether a difl^erent manner. Issuing 
from both sides of the principal stalk, their short pedicels curve upwards, so as to 
give them the appearance of two rows of flowers, placed side by side, on the upper 
surface of the spike. Their nature or their closeness, too, prevents them from 
expanding much ; and though they are in themselves really large, they do not 
occupy a great space. 
Coming from the low districts of Sierra Leone, it is presumable tliat the species 
VOL. IX. — NO. CIV. Z 
