FRANCISCEA IIYDRANGE/EF0RM1S. 
(Hydrangea-like Franciscea,) 
Class. Order. 
DID YN AMI A. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
SCRQPHULARIACEJE. 
Generic Character,— See page 27. bracteas lanceolate, pilose, ciliated and scale-formed, 
Specific Character.— Plant an evergreen shrub, aggregate. Cymes of flowers terminal, hemispherical, 
stem a little branched. Leaves oblong, acute, cunei- large. Calyx hairy. Corolla of a beautiful bluish- 
form, at the base quite glabrous, yellowish-green be- violet.— Don'* Gardening and Botany. 
neath, subverticillately aggregate, broad, a foot long ; 
This species is a native of the province of Rio Janeiro, Olava, and other parts 
of Brazil, where it was originally discovered and specified by Pohl. Mr. Gardner, 
the " Botanical Magazine" informs us, found it in the Organ Mountains in 1837, 
from whence he sent seeds that were raised in the Botanic Gardens of Kew and 
Glasgow, which establishments, doubtless, have since aided in furnishing collections 
with the plants they now possess. 
Fine as this stove plant is said to be, it has hitherto had no opportunity of 
developing the high character given it : though it has sufficiently discovered what it 
really is. Raised in botanical establishments, in close companionship with thou- 
sands of other plants, it is not expected it can have been afforded that accommodation 
necessary to develop its real excellence. Passing from the establishments referred 
to into Nurseries, and there undergoing a probation, and propagated with a severity 
that must impair the energies of the plants, — added to this, the length of time con- 
sumed before it reaches the hands of those who have to restore its energies and 
bring out its true character, — it is no wonder that it is, as are too many of our finest 
plants, comparatively a long time after their introduction to the country, before they 
occupy that position their merits ultimately insure to them. 
As an ornamental plant it has qualities which will claim for it a welcome 
admission among all inmates of a stove, possessing as it does the freedom of growth 
and disposition to bloom of its predecessors, and attaining naturally proportionately 
small dimensions ; its ample foliage, numerous and large heads of bloom, their fine 
colour when first expanded, and singular property, (in common with other members 
of the genus,) of changing to one almost opposite, constitute no small recommend- 
ation. 
vol. xni.— ^o, CL. R 
