Lantana Aculeata. Prickly Lantana.

Class and Order:

Didynamia Angiospermia.

Generic Character:

Calyx 4-dentatus obsolete. Stigma uncinato-refractum. Drupa nucleo 2-loculari.

Specific Character and Synonyms:

LANTANA aculeata foliis oppositis, caule aculeato ramoso spicis hemisphaericis. Lin. Syst. Veg. ed. 14. p. 566.

According to Miller, this species grows naturally in Jamaica, and most of the other Islands in the West-Indies, where it is called wild Sage; the flowers, which are very brilliant, are succeeded by roundish berries, which, when ripe, turn black, having a pulpy covering over a single hard seed.

It is readily propagated by cuttings.

Different plants vary greatly in the colour of their blossoms, and the prickliness of their stalks; the prickles are seldom found on the young shoots.

This plant will bear to be placed abroad in the warmest summer months, the rest of the year it requires artificial heat. It is usually placed in the dry stove, to which, as it is seldom without flowers, it imparts great brilliancy.