Page:Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Volume 58 (1831).djvu/68

 inches broad: the petioles are short, grooved above. The peduncles opposite to the leaves, single flowered, round, smooth, greenish-white, pendulous, four to seven inches long, generally single on the young branches, or, sometimes two, when one is at the base and the other towards the top. Occasionally the peduncles spring up on the lateral twigs of those branches, at from three to eight inches from the terminal leaves; these twigs being sometimes but half an inch or an inch and a half long, and bearing three to five leaves. In such cases, the peduncles shoot from the tips of the twigs. Near the summit of the peduncles is a bracteaa, reflexed when the flower is full blown, subcordate, acute, about twelve-nerved, green, crispato-undulate at the margin, slightly variegated with yellowish-red. Flowers fragrant; when beginning to expand, white, marked with purplish=brown spots; afterwards yellow and the spots brighter red. Calyx monophyllous, tube very short, limb deeply cleft into three unequal, coloured sepals, their margins crisped and waved: the sepal opposite to the bractea being shorter and narrower than the other two, which are somewhat coriaceous and ovato-acute. Corolla monopetalous, generally twice as long as the calyx; tube also short and reflexed; limb divided into six segments, arranged in a double series. Outer segments three, oblongo-ovate, their margins crisped and waved; of the same colour as the calycine segments, the ground bright yellow, marked with rows of irregular spots or interrupted stripes of reddish-brown, extending from the centre obliquely outwards, the smaller calycine sepal only being sometimes variegated with greenish-yellow along the middle and deep red at the margins. Inner segments three, from half to one-third shorter than the outer series, springing from the faux of the corolla by a short claw, cordate, convex, veined, yellowish-white externally, somewhat keeled on the back, down and entire at the edges, which adhere slightly together, within concave, smooth, shining, of a very pale yellow colour, variegated with pale crimson spots. The number of both the calycine and corolline segments is liable to occasional variation, nor does the their figure always precisely accord with the above description.

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