Volume 10 — PLATE DCX. RUELLIA FORMOSA. Beautiful Ruellia.

CLASS XIV. ORDER II.

DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. Two Chives longer. Seeds covered.

GENERIC CHARACTER.

Calyx 5-partitus. Corolla 1-petala, limbo inæquali 5-lobo. Capsula bilocularis, bivalvis, dentibus elasticis dissiliens.

Cup 5-parted. Blossom of one petal, with the limb unequally 5-lobed. Fruit a two-celled, two-valved capsule bursting with elastic teeth.

SPECIFIC CHARACTER.

Ruellia caule suffruticoso erecto; foliis pilosis, petiolatis, integerrimis, ovatis, obtusis; pedunculis lateralibus foliis duplo seu triplo longioribus, ramosis; ramulis subtrifloris.

Ruellia with a suffruticose erect stem; hairy, entire, oval, blunt leaves upon footstalks; the flower-stalks twice or thrice as long as the leaves and branched; the branches three-flowered.

REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.

For this very elegant species we are indebted to Mr. Donn, Curator of the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, who informs us that it is a native of Brazil, and was introduced from Portugal in 1808 by sir Charles Cotton, bart. The plant in the Cambridge garden is now nearly four feet high, with many branches, and has continued flowering profusely since the beginning of May, and appears as if it would continue to blossom during the summer. It is propagated by cuttings, and has as yet been kept in the hothouse.

We have found no figure or description of the plant in any author, but have seen a very fine dried specimen of it brought from Portugal by sir Thomas Gage, bart. in the herbarium of A. B. Lambert, esq. with this note affixed: “I found this Ruellia growing, and ripening seeds abundantly, amongst the hothouse-plants in the Botanic-Garden at Lisbon.” So ornamental a plant we trust will soon be equally abundant in the hothouses of our own country.