tube, segments elliptical, glabrous, excepting where there are a few 
very minute, almost microscopic, inverted hairs in the throat. Sta¬ 
mens opposite to the three outer segments and inserted at their base; 
filaments very short, anthers adnate, yellow, bilocular, bursting along 
the edges. Pistil projecting from the centre of the flower, nearly as 
long as the segments of the perianth; style colourless, glabrous, cleft 
at the apex into 4-6 segments, each crowned with a fimbriated stig¬ 
ma ; germen inferior, but with six minute lobes projecting from its 
apex above the origin of the corolla, ovate, three-celled, ovules sev¬ 
eral in each cell, placentae central. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. The genus Witsenia was 
established by Thunberg in his Nova Genera, and a single species 
named. The character w^as revised bv Mr. Gawler, in the Annals of 
Botany, 1, 236, but the present plant was first described and figured 
by the latter botanist in the Botanical Magazine, in 1805. Few things 
can be more unlike in the flower than the species of Witsenia are to 
each other, and they are scarcely held together without reversing the 
Linnean rule for the establishment of Generic character. He drew 
these only from the parts of the flower and fruit, and too absolutely 
considered habit an insufficient ground. Here the identity of habit 
seems the great bond of union, the flower, and in some respects the 
fruit, being disregarded. There has been a diflerence of opinion 
among botanists as to the species which belong to this genus, but 
probably it should be so restricted as to contain only those of the Cape 
of good Hope. M. Venteiiat separated the present species under the 
generic name Nivenia, but he has not been generally followed. 
Introduction; Where grown; Culture. Witsenia corymbosa 
was introduced into cultivation from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr, 
Hibbert at Clapham, about 1803, and is deservedly a great favourite 
in cultivation, on account of the profusion of extremely brilliant 
flowers which it produces in long succession during a great part of 
the season. With us, in the Edinburgh Royal Botanic Garden, it is 
cultivated in a cool stove, and there thrives extremely. The rage for 
new things, naturally enough excited by many splendid novelties, but 
which has too frequently caused the neglect of greater beauties of longer 
standing, has not been able to expel it from our collections. 
Derivation or the Name. 
Witsenia, named after Mr. Witsen, a Dutch botanist. 
Synonvmes. 
Witsenia coe,ymbosa. Gawler: in Bot. Mag. 895. Hort, Kew, 1, 110. 
Spreng. Syst, Yeget. 1, 147, Grah., 
