FRANCISCEA ACUMINATA. 
(Acuminate-leaved Franciscea.) 
Clasf. Order. 
DIDYNAMIA. AN GIOSPERMI A . 
Natural Order. 
SCROPHULARIACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx permanent, inflated, 
campanulate, five-toothed ; teeth equal. Corolla sal- 
ver-shaped ; limb five-parted, nearly equal ; lobes 
rounded, repand, with incumbent anthers ; tube in- 
flated at the apex, incurved. Style thickest at top ; 
stigma two-lobed. Capsule ovate, two-celled, two- 
valved ; valves indivisible ; dissepiment parallel with 
the valves, membranous, thin, separating at the base 
from the parietes of the capsule at maturity. — Don’s 
Gardening and Botany. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub, 
branches erectly spreading. Leaves oblong, acuminated, 
attenuated a little at the base, glabrous. Bracteas 
lanceolate, acuminated, and are, as well as the calyxes, 
quite glabrous. Flowers few, sub cymose, terminal* 
Corolla with a bluish- violet limb. Calyx brownish, 
Synonyme. — Franciscea Pohliana. 
It is much on behalf of the species under consideration to state, that it is little 
inferior to those of the genus already published. In general character it approaches 
F. uniflora, better known as F. Hopeana; its flowers do not indeed possess the 
delicious fragrance of those of that species, and perhaps they are produced less 
abundantly. The manner also in which its inflorescence is borne, constitutes a 
point of considerable difference between the two species ; F. uniflora produces its 
blooms singly, at the axils of the leaves of the young wood, or terminally, in twos 
or threes. F. acuminata bears its in terminal clusters of four or five flowers, and 
upwards. In this respect it is superior to F. uniflora , and resembles F. hydrangea - 
formis. 
Naturally it is a product of the province of Ptio Janeiro, and Mandioca, in Brazil, 
from whence it has been, in the instance of the plants which produced those from 
which our drawing was taken, (and probably in other cases also,) introduced into 
the country through the Nurseries of the Continent. 
F. acuminata , universally designated F. Pohliana, is conspicuous for a great 
symmetry and elegance of habit, which in conjunction with its numerous acuminate 
leaves, bunches of violet-blue flowers, these latter borne with tolerable freedom, and 
on plants of very small dimensions, invest it with a well-merited share of interest. 
We know of no genus of stove plants more appropriate for a small collection, 
than that of Franciscea, and none better calculated to afford satisfaction to the 
