56 GESNERA GERARDIANA. 
In its habit is combined all the freedom of character of the more graceful Achi- 
menes, with the sterling nature and substantial worth of the Gesneras. Dwarf-grow- 
ing, its leaves heart-shaped, and under favourable treatment, fine large glossy green — 
the flower-spikes terminally borne, of great size in proportion to the plant, with 
large flowers, that strongly remind us, by their colour and marking, of Achimenes 
picta, and supported by long slender peduncles, in a peculiarly free and graceful 
manner — constitute it when flowering, in the most extended sense, a beautiful object; 
added to the excellent traits just described, the freedom with which plants not six 
inches high produce fine spikes of bloom. 
The kind of treatment usually applied to Gesneras, is productive in this of great 
luxuriance. Perhaps a less highly stimulating process of culture is the most suit- 
able. It is propagated with the greatest facility by its leaves, or portions of them 
and the stem, and by tubers. 
To Conrad Gesner, a celebrated Zurich botanist, the genus was dedicated by 
Linnaeus. 
