to do with the Metastoma argentea of Willdenow and Per- 
soon. 
We are obliged to Sir Abraham Hume for the oppor- 
tunity of making this drawing. The plant flowered in July 
last, for the first time, in the hothouse at Wormleybury. 
We have seen it in several of the principal nurseries about 
town. 
Monsieur Bonpland not having framed any character for 
the genus, we have adopted one from Ventenat, uniting 
however his Merrana with his Ruexia. 
A shrub of about ten feet high, cloathed with a white 
silkily tomentose fur. Branches opposite, sharply four- 
cornered. Leaves opposite, spreading, sessile, subcordate, 
oyal, thick, silkily tomentose on both sides, with very dense 
incumbent hair, 7-9-nerved, quite entire. Panicle brachiate, 
terminal, composed of branchlets which are in general trifid. 
flowers violet-purple, bracteate, about an inch in diameter. 
Bractes 3 or 2, of the length of the calyx, silky, placed un- 
der each of the floral fascicles, caducous. Calyx tubular,. 
not unaptly likened by Lamarck to the form of a Clove, 
silkily villous, fivecleft; segments shorter than the tubular 
part, smooth on the inside. Petals 5, obovate, a little 
longer than the calyx, spreading, smooth on the inside, 
hairy on the outside. Stamens ten, longer than the co- 
rolla: filaments of the colour of the petals, bowed inwards, 
having two small tubercles at the top below the anther: 
anthers linear, faleate, fixed on at their base. Germen ob- 
longly ovate, with an umbilicus of 5 very villous teeth, 5- 
valved, 5-celled, many-seeded. We have depended upon 
Monsieur Bonpland for the description, which was taken 
from the dried plant, as well as the figure we have cited from 
his work. 
