p 
Class. 
DID YN A MI A. 
CHIRITA ZEYLANICA. 
(Ceylon Chirita.) 
Natural Order. 
CYRTANDRACEiE. 
Order. 
AN GIOSPER MI A. 
Generic Character. — Calyx deciduous, tubular, 
five-cleft. Corolla tubular at the base, ventricose at 
top ; limb campanulate, five-lobed, bilabiate ; lobes 
rounded, imbricate in aestivation. Stamens two, anthe- 
’iferous, inclosed, sometimes without any rudiment 
)f a sterile one, and sometimes with three ; filaments 
jlabrous ; anthers roundish, naked, adnate. Stigma 
npartite ; lobes linear, obtuse. Capsule siliquose, 
wo-celled, many-seeded ; dissepiment parallel. Seeds 
laked, acute at both ends.— Don’s Gard. and Bot . 
Specific Character. — Plant a succulent shrub, 
evergreen. Leaves opposite, appressedly silky above, 
indistinctly serrate, oblique at the base, with long 
petioles. Peduncles axillary. Flowers produced in 
trichotomous panicles. Bracts and calyx-lobes ovate. 
Corolla purple, having the interior of the tube yellow, 
bilamellate above, with two elevated hirsute lines 
beneath. Stigma transversely triangular. — Hooker. 
We have not met with a more charming thing with which it is at all comparable, 
Trough the past year, than this Chirita proved itself last summer in a very 
emperate, close, much-shaded stove, at Messrs. Knight and Perry’s, where the 
[rawing our plates are prepared from was completed. Cultural excellence was not 
ought in the case of the plant to which we allude, but the healthy and free manner 
n which it grew, the striking abundance of its blossoms, their size and deep bright 
ints, gave pleasing evidence of how favourable to its welfare the conditions it 
xperienced were. 
Messrs. Yeitch, of Exeter, favoured us with a specimen from a rather large 
lant sent to one of the last garden exhibitions of the Horticultural Society, that 
nabled our artist to make a partial drawing of this plant ; but in consequence of the 
reat heat of the season quickly destroying such specimen, the delineation was 
icomplete till the opportunity mentioned, of finishing it, was afforded. Of the 
istory of the species we have no further intelligence than that which may be found 
t page 213 of the volume preceding the present. The Island of Ceylon, from 
hence seeds have been received and raised in this country within this year or two, 
roduces it naturally. When out of flower it is by no means an attractive plant ; 
s branches are succulent, and grow long, sending out few laterals, but they bear 
•wards their apex panicles of beautiful flowers very freely. The foliage is 
VOL. XIII. — NO. CLVI. 
M M 
