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DIPLACUS PUNICEUS. 
(SCARLET-FLOWERED DIPLACUS.) 
CLASS. ORDER. 
DIDYNAMIA. ANGIOSPERMIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
SCROPHULARIACE^. 
Generic Character. — Calyx prism-shaped, with five segments at the summit. Corolla ringent, five- 
parted, lobes nearly equal, commonly emarginate. Stigma two plated. Capsule linear-oblong, 
two-celled. Placenta broad, then bipartite, adnate. Seeds awl-shaped on both sides. 
Specific Character. — Plant shrubby, glutinous, smooth. Leaves linear-lanceolate, nearly connate, 
slightly serrulated, acute. Calyx with five unequal, acuminate lobes. Corolla scarlet-coloured ; 
margin irregularly jagged. 
Before this beautiful plant had flowered in British collections, an opinion was 
current among cultivators, that the figures published from Mr. Nuttall's drawing 
were much exaggerated, and that the colour of the blossoms was scarcely a shade 
richer than those of the old Mimulus glutinosus. The appearance of the flowers in 
several gardens around London during the spring of the present year, at once 
dissipated this impression, and the species is now established as a most valuable 
acquisition. 
To enforce more effectively the above declaration, we now furnish our readers 
with an accurate representation of a branch of the specimen which first developed 
its blossoms in the neighbourhood of London. Our figure was obtained from the 
nursery of Messrs. Low and Co., of Clapton, by whom the entire stock of this 
species was received from Mr. Buist, of Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1837, and 
from whose establishment it has been distributed. The particular plant above 
alluded to bloomed in June last. 
It is somewhat singular that the original specimen from which all the thousands 
that are now adorning our greenhouses were raised, should have remained through- 
out the whole of the year 1838, without manifesting the least disposition to flower ; 
and that immediately after the young plants procured from cuttings had obtained 
sufficient strength, they commenced flowering with great liberality. The well- 
