(Greek, fringed anthers). Acanthaceae. Warmhouse evergreen shrubs of minor importance.

Upright, with entire or somewhat toothed, often verticillate leaves, glabrous, or the infloresence hairy: flowers in dense sessile spikes, red or yellow, with prominent bracts; corolla cylindrical, more or less curved, somewhat enlarged at the throat, with a flat or spreading oblique limb; stamens 4, in pairs. - Perhaps 20-25 species from India, tropical Air., and Madagascar. The one commonly in the trade has handsome 4-sided spikes of scarlet-orange flowers; perianth has 5 segments, the 2 upper ones being smaller; stamens 4, of 2 lengths: caps, oblong, acute, 4-seeded. It is cultivated S. outdoors to a slight extent, and also rarely in northern greenhouses. Should be grown in rich loam, peat or leaf-mold, and sand. Prop, by cuttings in sand over bottom heat, preferably under a bell-jar.

Undulaefolia

Salisb. (C. infundibuliformis, Nees). Height 1 ft., rarely 3 ft.: leaves opposite, ovate-acuminate, stalked: flowers scarlet-orange, overlapping one another in dense closely bracted, aechmea-like spikes, 3-5 in. long. India. B.M. 2186. R.H. 1891:156. B.R. 69.

C.fiava, Hook. Unbranched shrub, 6-8 in. high: stem green, glabrous: leaves opposite, close together, large for the size of the plant, 6 in. long, obovate-lanceolate, dark green above, paler beneath, wavy, more obtuse than in the above; lower leaves stalked, upper ones sessile: spike 4-sided, spiny; flowers yellow; tube much exserted, jointed. tropical W. Africa B.M. 4710. - C. guineinsis, Nees. Height 2-6 in.: stem light red, rusty pubescent: leaves 2-4 pairs, 3-5 in. long, elliptic, green above, with golden netted nerves, reddish beneath: spike solitary, terminal, slender, 3-5 in. high; flowers numerous, small, pale lilac, with 2 darker spots on the 2 smallest segments and a white eye. Guinea. B.M. 6346. - A handsome foliage plant.

N. Taylor.†