Calyx five-cleft. Corolla gaping. Capsule woody, covered, with a hooked beak; 4 divisions, and 4 openings.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Martynia caule ramoso, foliis oppositis, cordatis, dentatis, floribus diandris. Willd. Sp. Pl.
Martynia with the stem branching, leaves opposite, heart-shaped, and toothed, and flowers diandrous.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The empalement.
2. The chives.
3. Seed-bud and pointal.
4. The capsule.
We are glad to have an opportunity of giving a figure of a plant so very ornamental, and so rarely met with in our collections. Martynia diandra is a native of Mexico about Vera Cruz, and requires to be kept in the hothouse, or glass frame with artificial heat, and has much the same delicate texture as the Martynia proboscidea. Of the figures that have before been published of it, that of Jacquin in his Hortus Schœnbrunnensis, vol. iii. plate 289, is by far the best. A specimen was communicated by A. B. Lambert, esq., in November 1808, and another in May last from a plant which had outlived the winter, and from which the present figure is taken. All the species of Martynia are considered as annuals.