Tetrandria. ( 5 ) 
AMETHYSTINE CALLICARPA. 
W E add here an American to our Asiatic Treafures ; a Shrub 
who{e Berries have an Elegance not met with eliewhere in the Vegeta- 
ble World. Its Hardinefs is alfo a great Recommendation. We keep 
it in Green-houfes, but this cannot be neceflarp; a Native of North America 
will certainly bear the free Air in our Climate. 
It is a Shrub of moderate Height, with pliant Branches, and large handfome 
Leaves. The Flowers grow in a very fingular Manner ; like thofe of what are 
called the Verticillate Plants : two Leaves rile oppolite, and from the Bofom of 
each Footftalk grows a Tuft of Flowers, which, as they open, fpread in an elegant 
duller, furrounding the whole Stalk. 
The Flowers are of a pale, but elegant Crimfon ; they have a fmall green Cup, 
and each is divided into four Segments, mimicking fo many Petals, fpread widely 
open. The Cup has alfo four Divilions, but they are fmall and plain. 
Four long and llender Filaments rife from the Bottom of each Flower, with 
oval Buttons ; and they furround a lingle Style fixed on the Rudiment of the future 
Berry. 
Thefe. Berries are the great Beauty of the Plant ; they have a Delicacy and 
Elegance in Tin<3: and in Conftru^Iion, which attract every Eye. They duller 
round the Stalks at thefe Joints as the Flowers had done, and they are as big as 
fmall Peafe ; round and extremely glolfy. Their ripe Colour is a moft delicate 
Purple, not deep, but Ihining, exadly that of fome pale Amethyfts; and they 
appear covered inftead of the tough Skin which inverts our Berries, with a thin 
Ihelly, and as it were pearly Coat ; upon whofe Surface the Colour plays accord- 
ing to the Light, as in the Opal, or very fine Mother of Pearl : or as we imitate it 
in what are called the Changeable Silks. They have not the Alpe£l: of Berries, 
but of Pearls tinged naturally of this Amethyrtine Colour. Thofe to whom I firft 
Ihewed fome of them, brought from the native Climate of the Shrub, took them 
for Ihelly, and not vegetable Subrtances. Mr. Lee has fince ripened them here to 
the fame Perfection. I gave a fmall Shrub, with them perfe6f upon it, lart Year, 
to my great Friend and Patron, the Patron of all ufeful Studies, the Lord 
Northumberland. 
The four Filaments in each , Flower fhew it to be of the fourth Clafs in the 
Sexual Syrtem, the Tetrandria; and, like the preceding, having but one 
Style rifing from the Rudiment of the Fruit, it is of the firrt Order under that 
Clals, the Monogynia. 
It has been called S p ho ndylo coccus, and by our Gardeners, generally, 
JOHNSONIA. It grows freely from Curings; and in the fecond Year may 
be brought into its Place in our Plantations. 
Callicarpa. Linn. 
