.EGIPIIILA GRANDIFLORA. 
(Great-flowered ^aripliila.) 
Class. 
TETRANDRIA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
VERBENA CEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx campanulate or turbi- 
nate, four- toothed. Corolla hypogynous, funnel or 
salver-shaped, having the tube much longer than the 
calyx, and the limb parted into four equal segments. 
Stamens four, inserted in the tube of the corolla, 
exserted, equal. Ovarium four-celled, the cells each 
funished with one ovule. Style terminal, bifid. Berry 
four or two-celled, with the seeds solitary in the cells. 
—Endl. 
Specific Character Plant a robust evergreen 
shrub. Branches terete, glabrous. Leaves verticillate, 
entire, somewhat obovately-oblong, with very short 
petioles ; base obtuse, sub-cordate ; apex acute. 
Flowers yellow, produced in terminal, trichotomous 
corymbs. Peduncles bibracteate at the base. Calyx- 
tubs short, pentangular, five-toothed. Corolla large, 
pubescent, with a long tube ; the limb divided into 
five acute spreading lobes. Stamens exserted. Berry 
compressed, roundly-obovate, of a bright-blue colour. 
— Hook. 
The opposite portrait is that of the whole of a plant above the surface of the soil 
in which it grew, kindly sent to us the beginning of this year by Mr. A. Balston, of 
the Poole Nursery, Dorset, and preceded by a communication from which the 
following, as supplying all the information we have of the native country of our 
subject, is extracted. Mr. B. writes, " I have forwarded you a plant in bloom, 
which I had from Mr. Hugh Low, of Upper Clapton, under the name of Roncleletia, 
spes., Havanna." 
This is the plant, (see page 115,) published as JEgiphila grandiflora in the 
" Botanical Magazine " for May, having been received under similar circumstances 
to those which furnished it to us, by Sir William Hooker, whose name and specific 
character is above adopted. That it is a wild production of Havanna, there is 
no reason to doubt ; for we find that the other known, rather few, members in 
the genus have natural habitats comparatively adjoining, as Jamaica, Trinidad, 
Guiana, &c. To this country it is quite of recent introduction, and seems to have 
come through the Continent. 
Like its allies, M. grandiflora is a stove species, and one of great worth, if only 
from naturally producing its handsome flowers in winter; but they are borne 
plentifully, and endure a great length of time, and succeeding them comes another 
ornamental feature in the blue fruit. There are no specimens in this country which 
have yet attained dimensions of any account ; so that the real beauty of the 
VOL. XIII.— NO. CLIV. F F 
