LEIANTHUS 
NIGRESCENS. 
(Black-floweved Leianthus.) 
Class. 
PENTANDRIA, 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
GENTIANACEiE. 
Generic Character.— Calyx campanulate, five- 
left, equal, smooth. Corolla funnel-shaped, limb 
ve-cleft, regular. Stamens five, unequal. Anthers 
icumbent. Style elongated. Stigma capitate. Cap- 
ale two-celled or two-valved, many-seeded. 
Specific Character. — G reenhouse biennial. “ Stem 
carcely branched for about a foot-and-a-half (but 
ending out annotinous shoots in the autumn) which 
erminate in a large much-branched trichotomous 
'article, two to three feet high. Branches as well as 
he stem rounded. Leaves most crowded on the stem, 
ipposite, decussate, lanceolate, acuminate, three to 
ive-nerved, spreading, the base almost connate, dis- 
inct and smaller, and more acuminate on the branches. 
°etals long, slender, with usually a pair of subulate 
bracteas or small leaves below the calyx. Flowers 
gracefully drooping, two to three inches long. Calyx 
of five deep, subulate, oppressed segments, rather 
more than half the length of the tube of the corolla. 
Corolla deep purplish blue-black, funnel-shaped, 
regular. Tube cylindrical, dilated a little upwards ; 
the limb of five spreading, or almost recurved lanceo- 
late very acuminated segments, about half as long as 
the corolla. Stamens five, inserted a little below the 
middle of the tube. Filaments slender, rather longer 
than the tube. Anthers oblong, two-lobed. Pistil- 
ovary oblong, two- celled, and style rather longer than 
the filaments. Stigma large, capitate, two-lobed, 
velvety.”— Sir W. Hooker, Bot. Mag., 4043. 
Synonyme. — Lisianthus nigrescens. 
This very singular and interesting plant is a native of Mexico and Guatemala ; 
it has also been found in Tanetze, Talca, Comaltepeque, and Xalapa. For its 
ii’st introduction to this country we are indebted to Mr. Skinner, who gathered the 
seeds in Guatemala, and sent them amongst other things to the Royal Gardens at 
Kew, in 1842. Since that period it has been received into several other collections 
in different parts of the country; and from a fine specimen flowering at the 
Nursery of Messrs. Knight and Perry, King’s Road, Chelsea, in July, 1845, our 
drawing was made. 
The culture is perfectly easy. The seeds require sowing at the same time, and 
in the same manner as tender annuals ; and by placing them in a hotbed, or other 
convenient place where they will receive a genial moist heat, they will soon vegetate. 
When the young plants are of a sufficient size, pot them off in a mixture of 
equal parts of heath-mould and well rotted leaf-mould ; and as they advance in 
growth, repot, adding each time a little loam and sand, diminishing the quantity of 
leaf-mould. 
