Ceratostigma
(from keras, keratos, a horn, and stigma, a stigma; alluding to the stigmas being beset with short, horn-like excrescences). SYN. Valoradia. ORD. Plumbagineae. A small genus (three or four species) of greenhouse or hardy, perennial herbs or shrubs; one is Chinese, another Himalayan, and one or two are Abyssinian. Flowers densely capitate-spicate at the tips of the branches; calyx tubular, glandless, deeply five-cleft, the lobes narrow; corolla salver-shaped, the tube long and slender, the limb of five obtuse or retuse, spreading lobes. Leaves alternate, obovate or lanceolate, more or less setose-ciliated. Only one species calls for mention here. It thrives in ordinary garden soil, and may be increased by divisions. C. plumbaginoides (Plumbago-like). This is the correct name of the plant described on p. 169, Vol. III., as Plumbago Larpentae (F. d. S. 307). SYN. Valoradia plumbaginoides (B. M. 4487).