160 
DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF NEW PLANTS. 
GESNERiACEiE.-— Bidynamia Angiospermia. 
Gesneria Libanensis (Morren). It is much to be regretted 
that neither Martius nor Descaisne has carried out his views of 
the genera of Gesneriacece in a sufficiently comprehensive manner. 
Recent discoveries in South America have brought to light a 
great number of species, of which many are new, others ill- 
described, and all want a thorough investigation. The present 
plant is a native of Cuba, and was received at the Royal Gardens 
of Kew from Mr. Van Houtte, under the name of Bytidophyllum 
Jlorihundum; but neither coincides with that genus in character 
nor in habit. It appears from Walpers, that it was previously 
described by Morren under the name here adopted ; but it ill 
agrees with true Gesneria , rather with certain West Indian species 
in our Herbaria ( G . scabia , Sw., and G. humilis and acaulis, Linn.), 
which are referred to Conradia by Martius and De Candolle, 
though probably without sufficient examination. No family 
deserves a more thorough revision than that to which our present 
plant belongs : the individuals of it are eminently beautiful, and 
the greater number well worth cultivation. The plant rises but 
a few inches high, with a simple or very slightly branched stem, 
clothed with spreading rosulate foliage, chiefly in the upper part. 
Petioles short, channelled, almost shaggy, with rufous hairs ; the 
peduncles are axillary, rather longer than the petioles, single 
flowered, hairy, with long, narrow, linear bracteas at their base ; 
calyx hairy ; the tube wholly adnate with the ovary, turbinate; 
the limb of five ovate, somewhat leafy, acute segments ; corolla 
half as long as the leaves, tubular, swollen in the middle, hairy, 
bright red, the extremity a little decurved, the mouth oblique; 
the limb of five small spreading, nearly equal, rounded, ciliated 
lobes.— Bot. Mag. 4380. 
Conradia jloribunda (Martius). As though to prove the 
justness of the above remarks of Sir W. J. Hooker, we are pre¬ 
sented in Paxton’s c Magazine of Botany’ with what appears to 
be the identical plant in question, under the name of Conradia 
jloribunda , there described as recently introduced from the West 
Indies. It appears to be a peculiarly neat, little, free-blooming, 
stove plant, as <f specimens two inches high, and four inches in 
diameter, have upwards of a dozen flowers expanded at one time, 
and the period of blooming is also of long continuance.” 
