Class and Order.

Gynandria Diandria.

Generic Character.

Specific Character and Synonyms.

Of this parasitical tribe the number of species described in the third edition of the Sp. Pl. Linn. 1764, amounts to thirty; in Gmelin's thirteenth edition of the Syst. Nat. Linn. 1791, no less than seventy-five are enumerated, which is a vast accession in so short a period; most of these are natives of hot climates, and on that account require a stove heat in this country; from their nature also they require a situation not to be exactly imitated, they are therefore to be regarded as plants very difficult of culture, and we are not to be surprised that three species only are enumerated in the Hort. Kew.—but, since the publication of that work, many others have been added to the royal collection, and this among the rest.

The rare and singular species here represented, a native of the warmer parts of America, and the West-Indies, flowered with Mr. Whitley, Nurseryman, Old-Brompton, in Feb. 1799, and at irregular periods before that time; he informs me that it is not constant as to the time of its blowing, and that though the plant flowers with him, it never assumes a fine healthy green appearance, he propagates it by dividing its limbs or branches, which often put forth small roots; the plant grows in a pot, in a mixture of loam and peat or bog-earth, and is kept constantly plunged in the tan-pit of the stove.