Houttuynia
(named in honour of Houttuyn, the celebrated virtuoso of Amsterdam). Including Gymnotheca. SYNS. Anemia, Anemiopsis, and Polypara. ORD. Piperaceae. A genus comprising two or three species of greenhouse perennial herbs, one of which is from California, another is broadly dispersed through the Himalayan region, China, and Japan, and a third is probably from China. Flowers hermaphrodite, spicate, sessile between the bracts; spikes terminal, pedunculate, dense. Leaves alternate, broad or oblong, often cordate at base; stipules large, membranaceous. The species succeed in any light rich soil, and in a moist situation. Increased by divisions, or by seeds. H. californica (Californian). fl., spadix short, erect, conical, clothed with hermaphrodite flowers without any perianth, but subtended by an involucre of about six oblong, spreading, white bracts, of which the inner three are spotted with red. Summer. l. nearly all radical, long-stalked, sub-cordate at base, obtuse, entire. Stem hairy, longer than the leaves. California. (B. M. 5292, under name of Anemiopsis californica.) H. cordata (heart-shaped).* fl., involucre resembling a corolla, of four white, ovate, spreading, elliptical leaflets, inserted immediately below the oblong spadix, which consists of several naked, closely-placed flowers; peduncle terminal, solitary, single-flowered. l. cordate-acuminate, alternate, entire, remote, glabrous, nerved, more or less deeply notched at the base. Stem erect, mostly simple, zigzag, glabrous. Japan. (B. M. 2731.)