dropping off. Cyme of Flowers terminal, the lower divisions of 
which are in the axils of the upper leaves. lowers numerous, 
pale yellow. Peduncles and pedicles clothed with little fascicles 
of short hairs, so short as not to be perceptible without the aid 
of alens. Bractes oblong, obtuse, fringed, deciduous. Calyx 
turbinate, 5-cleft, clothed outside with a short tomentum : lacinize 
ovate, scarcely acute, keeled on the upper side, reflexed. Petals 
5, scale like, inserted between the laciniz. of the calyx: lamina 
cordately spathulate, concave, denticulate, with a very slender 
unguis. Stamens 5, opposite to the petals, and before expan- 
sion enclosed in the lamina. filaments smooth, anthers versa- 
tile. Ovarium pubescent. Style about the length of the sta- 
mens, triquetrous, cleft a little below the stigmas. Stigmas 3, 
capitate, slightly fimbriate. 
Our drawing of this handsome shrub, was made from a plant 
about ten feet high, in the Conservatory of J, J. Angerstein, 
Esq. of Woodlands, near Blackheath, last Spring. We have not 
had an opportunity of comparing it with the figure in Ventenat’s 
Jardin de la Malmaison, but it agrees precisely with every part 
of the description, and we have examined the specimens of 
Sieber in Mr. Lambert's Herbarium, and find our plant to be 
his P. maltfolia, which is quoted by M. Decandolle as belonging 
to P. discolor ; asis also Sieber’s P. discolor ; but that, in our 
opinion, is a distinct species; the flowers in Mr. Lambert’s spe- 
cimens being more than double the size, and the leaves larger 
and blunter, even more different in appearance than from P. 2n- 
termedia ; there are several nearly related species, all of them 
free growing, and handsome flowering plants, and only require 
to be sheltered from the severe frost, so that they make de- 
sirable plants for the Conservatory or Greenhouse, and would 
survive against a wall in the open air with the protection of a 
mat in severe frost; an equal mixture of light sandy loam and 
peat is a proper soil for them ; and young cuttings, planted un- 
der bell-glasses, in sand, will strike root, or they may be raised 
from seeds. 
The genus was named by Labillardiere, and is derived from 
mwa, a lid or cover, and Ssppic, a membrane, from the mem- 
branaceous lid of the capsule. 
PIP PL PP PE PE OD PD OT 
zs Flower magnified, with the bracte at the base of the pedicle. 2. The same 
spread open, showing the 5 parted calyx, with the 5 squamiform Petals alternate 
with the lobes, also the five Stamens. i} ; : he 
Style and 3 Stigmas. The pubescent Ovarium terminated by th 
