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MANETTIA GORDIFOLTA. 
(HEART-LEAVED MANETTIA.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
TETRANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
RUBIACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx four-parted, with a small tooth in each division. Corolla tubulose, quad- ' 
rind. Stamens four, inserted in the tube. Capsule two-celled. Seeds flat, with a membranous 
border, or winged. 
Specific Character. — Plant shrubby. Stems smooth, slender, twining, tinged with purple, rising to 
twelve or twenty feet high. Leaves opposite, shining, waved, two inches long, and an inch and a 
half broad towards the base ; but tapering to a rather blunt point at the extremity, somewhat heart- 
sbaped, with purple veins. Leaf-stalks an inch or more long on the lower leaves, but shorter on 
the upper ones. Flowers solitary, axillary ; and also terminating the branches. Flower-stalks 
slender, two inches long. Calyx with four sharp-pointed ovate segments, having a tooth inserted in 
each cleft of the calyx. Corolla bright scarlet, nearly two inches long, very handsome, smooth and 
shining outside, hairy towards the base of the Cube in the inside ; form of the tube somewhat 
triangular. 
Synonym — Manettia glabra. D. Don, in Brit. Fl. Gard., 233. 
This elegant plant is a native of the woods of Buenos Ayres, where it was 
discovered by Mr. Tweedie, who sent seeds of it to Dr. Neill of Cannonmills, near 
Edinburgh, in whose celebrated collection of plants it flowered for the first time in 
1832; and has since rapidly increased, being- now found in almost every part of 
this country. 
Our plants evidently thrive best planted in a mixture of heath mould (sandy 
peat) loam, and well rotted dung-. The culture is remarkably easy and simple, the 
plants merely requiring- to be potted as often as the roots begin to mat, and kept 
regularly in the green-house. 
The mode of propagation is by cuttings, which should be made of the half- 
ripened wood, and be planted in pots of sand, and plunged in a gentle moist heat ; 
and in a fortnight or three weeks they will have struck root ; and in six weeks will 
require to be potted off. 
In summer, the plants may be turned into the borders in warm situations, but 
they will not endure bad weather, and are therefore of short duration ; — it is best 
to keep them in the green-house. 
For the figure of this beautiful plant, we are indebted to Mrs. Lawrence, in 
whose collection it was in flower beautifully in September last. 
The generic name was given by Linnaeus, in honour of Xavier Manetti, Pro- 
fessor of Botany at Florence ; and the specific name from the form of the leaves by 
Martius. 
