77 
ALLAMANDA CATHARTICA. 
(cathartic allamanda.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
PENTANDRIA. MONOGYNIA, 
natural order. 
APOCYNACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted ; segments lanceolate-oblong, acute. Corolla funnel-shaped ; 
with a narrow tube, and a swollen, large, inflated limb, which is five-cleft at the apex ; furnished with 
five scales in the throat of the tube, which cover the anthers. Anthers five, almost sessile, converg- 
ing. Style one. Stigma capitate, contracted in the middle, adhering to the anthers. Capsule 
echinated, roundish-elliptic, one-celled, two-valved, many-seeded. Seeds surrounded by a membra- 
nous edge, fixed to the edge of tlie valves. AlbumeTi wanting. — Dori's Gard, and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant shrubby, evergreen. Stem erect, climbing. Leaves usually four in a 
whorl, sessile, oblong, acuminate, smooth and shining on the upper side. Flowers large, yellow, 
growing in clusters at the sides of the young shoots. Calyx with unequal segments. German 
nearly globular, furrowed at the base. Style filiform, the length of the tube of the corolla. 
Probably no old stove-plant is more affected by appropriate or improper 
treatment than the fine species of which a drawing is now published. At Messrs. 
Henderson's, Pine-apple Place, we observed it last year growing with such great 
luxuriance, and flowering in such high perfection, that we were led to disregard its 
oldness, and bring it thus prominently forward in order to induce others to give it 
the same simple attention. 
Its native country is Cayenne and Guiana, where it is reported to flourish in 
the neighbourhood of rivers. Baron Hake is said to have introduced it in the year 
1785 ; but its cultivation has been renewed within the last six or seven years with 
greater spirit than before, and it may generally be found in the best collections, 
notwithstanding the length of time it has been known. 
As a stove-climber, it must be regarded as of a very ornamental character. Its 
leaves are large, handsome, of a deep glossy green, and retained all the winter ; 
while they are not, as in some climbing plants, so remote as to suffer the eye to rest 
long on the bare stems ; and the species is of a particularly free and strong growth 
when judiciously managed. The flowers, too, are exceedingly showy; and 
