Volume 8 — PLATE DVI.

RUELLIA CRISTATA.

Crested Ruellia.

CLASS IV. ORDER I.

TETRANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Four Chives. One Pointal.

ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx 5-partitus. Corolla monopetala, limbo 5-lobo, inæquali. Stamina biconjugata. Stylus filiformis. Stigma bifidum. Capsula dissepimentis dentatis, elasticis, dehiscentibus. Semina pauca.

Empalement 5-parted. Blossom one petal: border 5-lobed, unequal. Chives by pairs. Shaft thread-shaped. Summit two-cleft. Capsule with the partitions toothed, elastic, and splitting. Seeds few.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ruellia cristata, spicis terminalibus, tetragonis: corollis coccineis: oris laciniis inæqualibus, acutis: lacinia inferiore revolutâ: foliis sub-lanceolatis, acuminatis, undulatisque.

Justicia cristata. Jacq. Hort. Schœn, vol. iii. tab. 320.

Ruellia with crested flowers growing in a terminal four-sided spike. Blossoms scarlet: the segments of the border are unequal and pointed: the lower segment is rolled back: the leaves are nearly lance-shaped, pointed, and undulated.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

Of this fine stove plant there is a very good figure in the Hortus Schœnbrunnensis of Jacquin, under the appellation of Justicia cristata. But finding the generic character accord much better with the genus Ruellia, we have, in conformity to the sexual system of Linnæus, given it under that title. Our figure represents only a side branch of the plant, whose size was congenial to the dimensions of the work; and although the centre branch would have been, like Jacquin’s figure, more splendid, it would by no means have been so picturesque. It flowered for the first time in this country with A. B. Lambert, esq., and was introduced by Lord Seaforth from the West Indies.