in botany: A genus of the angiospermia order, belonging to the didynamia clas of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 4th order, Petronatae. The calyx is quinquepartite, very large, and coloured; the corolla rotaceous; the capsule bilocular, and situated in the bottom of the calyx; the seeds solitary. There is only one species, a native of New Spain. It rises to the height of 15 or 16 feet, with a woody stalk covered with grey bark, sending out several long branches. These have a whiter bark than the stem, and are garnished with leaves at each joint, which, on the lower part of the branches, are placed by three round them; but, higher up, they are rough, and have a rough surface. The flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, in loose bunches nine or ten inches long, each flower standing on a slender flower-stalk about an inch long: the emplacement of the flower is composed of five narrow obtuse leaves about an inch long, which are of a fine blue colour, and much more conspicuous than the petals, which are white, and not more than half the length of the emplacement. The plant is propagated by seeds procured from the places where they are natives, and of which very few are good; for though Dr Houlton, the discoverer of the plant, sent parcels of seeds to several persons in England, only two plants were produced from the whole. The seeds must be sown in a good hot-bed; and when the plants come up, they should all be planted in a separate small pot filled with light loamy earth, and plunged into a hotbed of tanners bark, where they should afterwards constantly remain.