of which indeed what is now separated under the denomi- 
nation PrerosPERMuUM, was the original type, but the above 
character is common to that and the present genus.” 
“ Native of various parts of India, sometimes cultivated 
for its beauty in our stoves, where it has been known con- 
siderably above a century. It flowers in July, and is an- 
nual. The stem is two or three feet high, round, branched, 5 
leafy, besprinkled with a few close-pressed starry bristles, 
indicative of its natural order. Leaves alternate, stalked, 
lanceolate, taper-pointed, strongly crenate, smoothish, more 
or less hastate at the base. Stipulas in pairs, linear. Flowers 
axillary, solitary, drooping, on rough stalks shorter than 
the footstalks; they are of a beautiful scarlet colour, and 
above an inch in diameter; the five leafy appendages (be- 
tween every parcel of three stamens) are externally rough or 
hoary. The foolish name by which Rumphius has dis- 
tinguished this flower (Flos impius ) and which is said to be 
a translation of its Indian appellation, alludes to its profane 
or impious nature, in never looking towards heaven.” ,Smith 
in Rees’s Cyclopedia. 
The genus consists at present of one species.. The Prnta- 
petes (DomBrya. Willd. sp. pl. 3. 725. and Curtis's magaz. 
1000) Erythroxylon of the first edition of the Hortus Kew- _ 
ensis has been referred to Mennania by Mr. Brown, in the 
second edition of that work ; a genus differing chiefly from 
the present in technical character, by haying five instead of 
fifteen stamens; but in nature and habit very widely. 
The drawing was taken this summer at Mr. Lee’s nur- 
sery, Hammersmith. The plant is rare with us, notwith- 
standing its beauty and long-standing. 
The “ Sjamin” of Van Rheede’s Hortus Malabaricus, 
quoted by Willdenow to this species, belongs to Hrsiscus 
Rosa malabarica of this work (vol. 4. fol. 337). It is the 
“< Naga-Pu” of Rheede, which is the species before us, 
