Jussiaea
(named in honour of the celebrated family of Jussieu). SYN. Jussieua. ORD. Onagrarieae. A genus comprising about thirty species of stove or green-house herbs, or rarely shrubs, very rarely small trees, often marsh-loving, and a few aquatic; they extend over the tropical regions of the globe, but are mostly found in America. Flowers white or yellow, axillary, solitary, very short or long-stalked; calyx with an elongated tube, and four to six persistent lobes; petals four to six, spreading. Leaves alternate, very frequently membranaceous and entire, rarely coriaceous and serrated. All the species thrive in a loamy soil, the aquatics requiring a basin of water. Propagation may be effected either by seeds or by divisions. J. frutescens (shrubby). fl. yellow, shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes four, ovate, acute, pubescent outside; tube cylindrical, eight-furrowed. June. l. sessile, lanceolate-linear, glandulose, slightly crenate. 1824. Stove evergreen shrub.
J. ovalifolia (oval-leaved). fl. sessile; calyx lobes four, ovate, acuminate, three-nerved; petals orbiculate, nearly equal; tube elongated, tetragonal. l. sub-sessile, elliptic, acuminate, nerve-veined. Madagascar. (B. M. 2530.) J. repens grandiflora (creeping, large-flowered). fl. yellow, 2in. in diameter, drooping before expansion; petals twice as long as the five calyx segments. May to August. l. lanceolate, acute. Stem creeping at base, 2ft. to 3ft. long. North America (in marshes), 1812. Greenhouse herb. (B. M. 2122.)