ACHIMENES PICTA. 
(The Painted Achimenes.) 
Cto. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Natural Order. 
GESNERACE^. 
Generic Character — Ca??/.*; with its tube adnate to 
le ovary ; limb five-parted ; lobes lanceolate. Corolla 
ibularly funnel-shaped, often swollen at the base ; 
mb five-cleft ; lobes sub-equal, sub-rotund. Stamens 
ur, didynamous ; anthers not cohering. Rudiments 
■ the fifth stamen situated below the base of the 
)rolla. Nectary glandular, in a small ring. Style 
ightly thickened towards the stigma, oblique, or with 
VO separate lobes. Capsule nearly two-celled, two- 
ilved ; placentas parietal, sub-sessile. 
Specific Character — Roots consisting of numerous 
ongated scaly tubers. Stems erect, not much branched. 
covered, as also is every part of the plant, with rather 
long hairs, herbaceous, succulent. Leaves opposite, 
and ternately verticillate ; petioles ovate-cordate, ser- 
rate, rich velvetty green, mottled and reticulated with 
white. Flowers on peduncles longer than the leaves, 
drooping, moderately large. Calyx almost entirely 
free : tube obconical, or turbinate : segments oblong- 
ovate, spreading. Corolla full yellow, with red above, 
within streaked and dotted with red; tube funnel- 
shaped above : limb spreading, two upper lobes the 
smallest. Ovary ovate, hairy, with five oblong, fleshy 
glands at the base. 
Nothing can be more appropriate than the specific title of this truly charming 
ilant. The rich velvetty green foliage traversed with its reticulations and 
flottlings of pale greenish white, or the beautifully streaked and spotted flowers, 
ivould each be a sufficient ground for naming it “ the painted Achimenesr It is 
ertainly one of the finest of this magnificent family. 
Mexico is its native country, and it is one amongst the many superb things 
ntroduced from that country by the Horticultural Society, through their active 
>nd zealous collector, Mr. Hartweg. That gentleman discovered it in his rambles 
m the wooded heights to the east of Guaduas, and gives the following account of 
t in the “ Horticultural Transactions : “ In its native habitat this Achimenes 
irefers dry rocky ground, in places not much shaded, where it scarcely attains 
nore than five inches in height, seldom producing above two or three of its finely 
nottled bright orange flowers upon a stem. 
From this account it appears that our garden specimens far exceed the wild 
mes both in vigour and abundance of flowers. It is no uncommon thing to see 
landsome plants two or three feet high, which, instead of merely a solitary blossom, 
lave frequently from five to seven or eight from the axil of each leaf. In such 
lases a short peduncle usually springs from the axil, and after reaching to half an 
nch or an inch in length, branches off at the top into several pedicels, which are 
learly erect, each carrying a single blossom. Last spring we measured a stem 
Tom which several vigorous branches had issued at a short distance from the foot, 
which extended upwards of four feet and a half from the surface of the soil to the 
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