CLERODENDRUM SPLENDENS. 
(Splendid flowered Clerodendrum.) 
Class. 
DIDYNAMIA. 
Order. 
ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
VERBENACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx campanulate, five- 
parted, five-toothed. Corolla with a cylindrical tube, 
often elongated; limb five-parted, lobes equal. Sta- 
mens four, didynamous, exserted, secund. Germen 
four-celled, one-seeded. Stigma bifid, acute. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen climber, 
smooth. Leaves oblong, undulated, acute, subcordate 
at the base. Panicles terminal, corymbose. Calyx five- 
toothed, varying. Corolla with oblong nearly equal 
lobes, and a plain short tube. Stamens straight, much 
longer than the style. Stigma two-toothed. 
A climbing species in the genus Clerodendrum, though not altogether a novelty, 
is sufficiently rare to render the acquisition of the present plant an interesting 
circumstance, had it no other claims to notice. But it is, in reality, rich in desirable 
qualities, and constitutes one of the best climbing stove plants we possess. It has 
very handsome evergreen foliage, is of a close and by no means rambling habit, and 
has splendid flowers, of which it bears an extraordinary abundance, and in large 
conspicuous clusters. 
It was found by Mr. Whitfield, an enterprising naturalist, in the woods of 
Sierra Leone, and communicated to Mr. Knight, of the King's Road, Chelsea, in 
one of whose stoves it bloomed last autumn ; and there have been either flowers or 
flower-buds on the same plant ever since. The following account of it, which we 
take the liberty of transferring to our pages, was sent to Dr. Lindley by Mr. 
Whitfield, and published in the Botanical Register. 
"Late in the month of December, 1838, my servant John Richards brought 
me a bunch of the flowers of Clerodendrum splendens, and afterwards took me to the 
spot where he found it growing wild, when I took up the root of it after much 
labour, as the plant was growing in a very stiff gravelly soil. Early in February, 
1839, I rambled, when practicable, along the south-west district of Sierra Leone, 
where I found it growing in greater plenty, and of various colours, viz. — crimson, 
brick-dusk red, orange, and bicolor (crimson and white) ; the latter plant seemed 
to me to be more luxuriant where the soil had been broken up by the liberated 
Africans, for the purpose of cultivating the manioc ; the other varieties had become 
