This is a high-resolution digital download of Plate 4254 from Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The original illustration was hand-colored in the 1800s. This listing includes both the botanical image and its accompanying description tab.

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TAB. 4254.

DIASTEMA OCHROLEUCA. Pale yellow Diastema.

Nat. Ord. GESNERIACEÆ.-DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.

Generic Character Calyx basi breviter adnatus, limbo 5-partito. Corollæ tubus

subæqualis, exsertus, declinatus; limbus patens, 5-fidus. Stamina 4, didynama, cum rudimento quinti; antheræ liberæ, subrotundæ. Glandula perigynæ 5. Stylus apice bilamellatus, lobis membranaceis intus stigmatosis, valvulis medio placentiferis. Semina numerosa. Benth. DIASTEMA Ochroleuca; erecta herbacea pubescenti-hirsuta, foliis sublonge petio- latis ovatis acutis grosse serratis rugosis, paniculis terminalibus trichotomis subfoliosis, corollis glabris, glandulis hypogynis clavatis ovario longioribus. vided, many-flowered, pedicels often leafy or bracteated at the base. Calyx more than half superior; the segments acute, spreading. Corolla straw-colour, about the size of that of Achimenes coccinea: the tube nearly straight, slightly dilated at the base, the mouth oblique, with five nearly equal, rounded, spreading lobes. Stamens four, quite included. Ovary ovate; stigma two-lipped. Hypogynous glands five, clavate, longer than the ovary.

Figures

Fig. 1. Corolla laid open. 2. Pistil or hypogynous glands :-magnified Thrifty Whiskers A very pretty and ready-flowering Gesneriaceous plant, of which tubers were sent to the Royal Gardens of Kew by Mr. Purdie, from the Sierra Nivada of Santa Martha, New Grenada. It is evidently nearly allied to Achimenes, and apparently identical with Mr. Bentham's Diastema,* (Siaornua, intervallum; in allusion probably to the genus being intermediate between Achimenes and Gesneria), of which he remarks, "the free stamens of this plant indicate an affinity with Achimenes, and the form of the corolla is not unlike that of some of the small-flowered species of that genus, but the tube is neither gibbous nor spurred at the base, and the five equal perigynous glands are more prominent even than in Gesneria and Gloxinia. It is not improbable, however, that A.erinoides, DC., and A. conifera, DC., may be congeners of our plant." It flowered in August, 1846, and requires the heat of a stove.

Botanical Description Stems herbaceous, erect, branched, rather stout, very

obtusely four-sided, slightly downy, more or less tinged with purple. Leaves opposite, hairy, especially above, on rather long, stout, succulent petioles, ovate, acute, wrinkled with veins, paler and less hairy beneath. Panicles terminal, trichotomously di- *In Botany of the Voyage of the Sulphur,' p. 132. SEPTEMBER 1ST, 1846.