Curtis Botanical Magazine Plate 1014 - Justicia lucida (Shining-leaved Justicia) | Original Hand-Colored Print

Original hand-colored antique botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine - Plate 1014, Justicia lucida (Shining-leaved Justicia).

• Plate: 1014
• Latin name: Justicia lucida
• Common name: Shining-leaved Justicia
• Native region: Barbadoes
• Flowering: August and September
• Flower colour: Scarlet
• Linnaean class / order: Diandria / Monogynia
• Medium: Original hand-colored engraving (physical print, not a reproduction)

Original Curtis text
Transcribed from the plate's accompanying description page:

[ 1014 ]

JUSTICIA LUCIDA. SHINING-LEAVED JUSTICIA.

. . .

Class and Order.
DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Generic Character.
Cal. simplex vel duplex. Cor. irregularis vel subregularis. Caps. 2-valvis, 2-locularis: dissepimentum valvulis contrarium: retinaculis feminum uncinulatis. VAHL.

Specific Character and Synonyms.
*** Calyce simplici, corollis bilabiatis: labis drviffs.—Dianthera. JUSTICIA lucida; racemis terminalibus compositis subcapitatis, foliollis calycis bracteique subulatis, foliis ovatis acutis integerrimis glabris in periolum decurrentibus. JUSTICIA lucida. Vahl Enum. 2. p. 400. Bot. Repos. t. 313. Donn's Cant. p. 5. DESCR. Stem perennial, smooth, round, striate, dilated at the insertions of the leaves, seldom exceeding three feet in height; branches few and only from the lower part. Leaves oblong-ovate, acute, leathery, strongly veined, entire, dark green, smooth, decurrent down the foot-stalk. Flowers terminal in a compact, compounded raceme: partial peduncles opposite, bearing three to five flowers placed alternately on short pedicles. Bracts subulate, shorter than calyx. Calyx simple, five-parted; segments linear-lanceolate, pubescent. Corolla deep scarlet, tubular, bilabiate, somewhat curved, three or four times longer than calyx; upper lip entire, lower lip three-toothed. Filaments purple, smooth: Anthers binate, pedicled. Germen ovate: Style the length of corolla, filiform, clothed with short hairs, remaining after the fall of corolla: Stigma truncate. Both herb and flowers scentless. Among the addenda at the end of the second volume of the Enumeratio Plantarum of Prof. VAHL; this species is taken up from the Botanist's Repository, and is properly directed to be arranged next to JUSTICIA secunda; to which it is indeed very nearly allied, if it be not a mere variety of it. At first light it bears a strong resemblance to JUSTICIA coccinea (Bot. Mag. No. 432); but, upon closer examination, these plants differ in almost every point. The present is by much the most desirable, from its easy caly culture, ready flowering, and more convenient size. Native of Barbadoes, but, as we believe, not of the East Indies, as is erroneously stated in Bot. Repos. and thence repeated in Enum. Plantarum. Propagated, with great facility, by cuttings. Blooms in August and September. Introduced about the year 1794. Requires the heat of the bark stove.

This print comes from our Curtis archive (via the Royal Horticultural Society and Wheldon & Wesley). Sold as an original historic plate - please review photos for condition.