CHjETOGASTRA strigosa. 
(Strigose Cheetogastra.) 
Class. Order. 
DECANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
MELASTOMACEJ3. 
(Melastomads, Veg. King.) 
Generic Character — Tube of calyx turbinate, 
pilose, or scaly; lobes five, permanent. Petals five, 
obovate. Stamens ten, with glabrous filaments, and 
oblong anthers. Anthers opening by one pore at the 
apex ; having their connectives drawn out, sometimes 
into a simple or bifid spur, and sometimes into two 
small obtuse tubercles. Ovary free, bristly at the 
apex, and often denticulated. Capsule five-celled. 
Seeds cochleate. 
Specific Character. — Plant a dwarf shrub, six or 
eight inches in height. Branches tetragonal, covered 
with adpressed bristles. Leaves small, entire, opposite, 
on short petioles, ovate, acute, three-nerved, somewhat 
ciliated, having on the upper surface a few scattered 
adpressed bristles, and on the nerves of the under 
surface scabrous. Petioles short, fleshy. Flowers 
axillary and terminal, cymose. Cymes pedunculate, 
few-flowered. Calyx-tube hispid, with five short, acute 
lobes. Petals four or five, rosy-purple, bractless. An- 
thers yellow, obtuse, scarcely auricled. Ovary five- 
celled. Capsule ovate. 
Authorities and Synonymes.— Melastoma strigosa, 
Lin, Fit Sup. 236 ; Melastoma ciliata, Desr. in Lam , 
Diet, 4, p. 49; Osbeckia ornata, Swartz, Flor. Lnd. 
Occ, 647 ; Rhexia chama?cistus, Sieb. Pl.Exsic. Mart., 
No. 297 ; Rhexia inconstans, Vahl. Elc, 1, p. 37 ; 
Rhexia ornata, Rich, in Bonp. Rhex. t. 26 ; Rhexia 
strigosa, Rich, Act. Soc Hist. Nat, 1791, p. 108 , Cha>- 
togastra strigosa, Be Candolle's Prod., 3, p. 131. 
A new greenhouse plant, of considerable merit, introduced by Messrs. Veitch 
and Son, of Exeter, through their collector, Mr. Thomas Lobb. It is a native of 
Guadaloupe, where it was originally discovered, growing in beds of sphagnum on 
the summit of the Sulphur Mountain, and it has also been found on the mountains 
of Montserrat and Martinique. 
The habit of the plant is dwarf, leaves small, and branches slender and spreading, 
extreme height not exceeding six or eight inches, and the flowers, although not 
large, are produced in great abundance, and are of so rich a colour, that when 
expanded, the plant becomes a very conspicuous object. 
More than thirty species of Chaetogastra have been discovered and described, 
some of which are very handsome, but as yet few have appeared in our collections ; 
and our present subject is perhaps the handsomest of any yet introduced. 
They thrive best in a mixture of sandy peat and leaf-mould, with a small portion 
of loam, but the drainage must be complete. Propagation is effected by cuttings of 
VOL. XV. NO. CLXXX. 
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