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APHELANDRA CRISTATA. 
(CRESTED APHELANDRA.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
natural order. 
ACANTHACEjE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx five-parted, unequal. Corolla bilabiate. Anthers one-celled. Capsule 
two-celled, dissepiment contrary. Seeds covered with small netted cords. 
Specific Character. — Plant an evergreen shrub. Leaves oblong, acuminate, large, drooping. Spikes 
four-sided. Bracts ovate, very entire. Corolla smooth ; upper lip ascending, bifid ; lower one 
pendent, incurved, entire. 
Synonymes. — Justicia pulcherrima. J. cristata. J. tetragona. J. arborea. Ruellia cristata. 
By a classification of the exotic shrubs cultivated in the plant-houses of this 
country into uninteresting and ornamental species, it would be found that those of 
the last description greatly predominate, but that many of them are so badly grown 
as to assume an appearance which is anything but engaging, and often the very 
reverse. We could mention an almost indefinite number whose aspect is rarely 
above, and frequently below, what may be considered a mediocre share of beauty, 
which might be brought, by judicious treatment, to outshine hundreds of those 
by which the places they should occupy are usurped. In the present instance, it 
will suffice to specify the very handsome plant which we have deemed eminently 
worthy of decorating the opposite page of our Magazine, both on account of its 
robust as well as vigorous habitude and foliage, and the large clusters of splendid 
flowers by which its stems are terminated. 
Aphelandra cristata is one of those old plants which, while any person will 
befriend it by furnishing the soil and atmosphere it loves, will never be permanently 
disgraced or discarded. And yet the places are by no means scarce in which, 
through an imperfect knowledge of its sterling characteristics, an ill-disguised 
indifference, arising from the length of time it has been a denizen of our stoves, and 
that neglect which must inevitably result from these concurrent causes, it is to be 
seen in a shabby and stunted state, totally at variance with the healthy condition 
