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CUPHEA MELVILLA. 
(mELVILLe’s CUPHEA.) 
CLASS. 
DODECANDRTA. 
ORDER. 
MONOGYNIA. 
NATURAL ORDER. 
LYTHRACEiE. 
Generic Character. — Calyx tubular, gibbose at the base on the upper side ; limb wide, twelve-toothed, 
with six of the teeth erect, and the other six small or nearly obsolete, rising from the sinuses of the 
inner teeth. Petals six or seven, unequal. Stamens eleven to fourteen, rarely six or seven, 
unequal, inserted in the throat of the calyx. Gland under the ovarium thick. Style filiform. 
Stigma simple, or rather bifid. Capsule membranous, covered by the calyx, one or two-celled, at 
length cleft by the deflexed placenta as well as the calyx. Seeds nearly orbicular, compressed, wing- 
less. — Don’s Gard. and Botany . 
Specific Character. — Plant perennial, herbaceous. Stems numerous, erect. Leaves sessile, lanceolate, 
attenuated at both ends, scabrous. Racemes terminal, simple, many-flowered. Calyx red at the 
base, and green at the apex. Petals wanting. 
Synonyme. — Melvilla speciosa. 
This handsome old plant, which was introduced from Essequibo, in British 
Guiana, about the year 1823, is now subjected to most unmerited neglect, and cul- 
tivated only in those gardens where ornament is the standard of selection. To rescue 
it from this position, and render its beauty more generally appreciated, are our 
intentions in here bringing forward a figure. 
Being an herbaceous perennial, it is exceedingly like Salvia splendens and other 
species in its manner of growth, as well as in the appearance, as respects figure, of 
its showy blossoms. Its stems are, however, so much more numerous, almost all of 
them bearing a cluster of flowers at the summit, that it makes a better display than 
any Salvia ; and it has the additional recommendation of blooming from May or 
June till August and September, or even later. The flowers, too, are both curious, 
as being composed solely of a coloured calyx, without any petals, and interesting, 
from the fine combination of crimson and green which they exhibit. 
The mention above of its native country, will show the reader, that although 
we have compared it to a Salvia in some particulars, it requires a higher tempera- 
