Isertia
(named after P. E. Isert, a German surgeon). SYNS. Brignolia, Bruinsmania. ORD. Rubiaceae. A genus comprising fifteen species of shrubs or trees, natives of Brazil, Guiana, and New Grenada. Flowers scarlet or red, rarely white or yellow, rather large, in many-flowered, thyrsoid, terminal, corymbose cymes, shortly pedicellate. Leaves large, opposite, rarely ternate, verticillate, thick, coriaceous, acuminate. I. coccinea, perhaps the only species in cultivation, is a very handsome stove evergreen shrub, requiring a compost of peat and loam, with the addition of a little charcoal and silver sand. Increased by cuttings, inserted in sandy soil, in heat, during spring and summer.
I. coccinea (scarlet). fl. scarlet, velvety on the outside, 1in. long; thyrse terminal, many-flowered, panicled. July. l. oval, acuminated at both ends, downy beneath. h. 8ft. to 12ft. Guiana, 1820.