RUELLIA MACROPHYLLA. 
(Large-leaved Ruellia.) 
Class. 
DIDYNAMIA. 
Order. 
AN GIOSPERMI A. 
Natural Order. 
ACANTHACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx five-parted ; lobes 
equal or sub-equal. Corolla hypogynous, funnel- 
shaped ; limb five-parted ; lobes equal, spreading, 
obtuse. Stamens four, inserted in the tube of the 
corolla, didynamous. Anthers oblong, two-celled ; 
cells parallel, equal. Ovary two-celled. Style simple. 
Stigma oval-shaped, channelled at the back. Capsule 
oblong quadrangular, two-celled, six to eight seeded ; 
cells two-valved ; valves seed-bearing. Seeds adhering 
by a thread. 
Specific Character.— Plant a perennial shrub. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate, entire, pubescent. Flowers 
produced in dichotomous panicles. Bracts linear, 
situated somewhat regularly upon the small branches ; 
the smaller bracts scaly. Corolla bilabiate, divided 
into obtusely ovate lobes; the paramount lobes approx- 
imating closely, the others equidistan . Stamens ex- 
serted. — Bindley . 
The fine old stove plant of which a specimen is here represented calls for very 
few remarks at our hands. Some records speak of it as having been introduced 
more than twenty years since, and it may have been a cultivated plant in England 
as far back as that date ; but we look upon the present race of plants as modem 
arrivals, from St. Martha, New Granada, South America, to the Royal Botanical, 
Kew, or Sion House Gardens ; from thence it has found its way into many 
collections. Messrs. Knight and Perry’s produced flowering specimens, which 
enabled us, last summer, to prepare the present drawing. 
Ruellia macrophylla succeeds under culture when grown in the soil and favoured 
with the treatment stove plants usually receive. It is a free-growing and abundant- 
flowering species, quickly attaining goodly dimensions ; has ample foliage, flowers a 
considerable length of time in summer, propagates easily by cuttings, and, we doubt 
not, can be made to do so by seeds likewise. Liberally grown, large specimens 
display the character of our subject to the greatest advantage ; but small ones also 
flower, and when doing so are worthy of even choice collections. 
Dr. Lindley, publishing R. macrophylla last year, wrote of members of this and 
allied genera thus : — “ It should be an instruction to all persons sending home 
South American seeds, not to forget the fine species of Acanthads with which that 
part of the world abounds ; for although many are but weeds, yet others are quite 
as striking for their beauty as this and the Justicias, Aphelandras, &c., already in 
