Laportea
(named by Gaudichaud after his friend M. Laporte). ORD. Urticaceae. A genus comprising twenty-five species of stove perennial herbs, shrubs, or trees, widely distributed throughout the warmer regions of the Old World, a few being natives of extra-tropical North America or Mexico; the genus is quite absent from South America. Flowers monoecious or dioecious; panicles axillary, solitary, cymose-dichotomous, or rarely reduced to simple racemes. Leaves alternate, often large, dentate, rarely entire, penniveined, rarely three-nerved. Laporteas thrive in a compost of rich loam and fibrous peat or leaf mould. Propagated by seeds; or by cuttings, placed in sand, under a bell glass, in heat. Great care should be exercised in handling these plants, as they possess stinging hairs, which cause acute pain, and the effects last for a long period.
L. crenulata (crenulated). fl. dioecious. l. elliptic or ovate, acuminate, cordate at base. Branches unarmed. India. Tree. (B. F. S. 306.) L. gigas (giant). fl. green. l. large, broadly-ovate or rotundate, often abruptly attenuate or shortly acuminate at base, cordate, sub-entire, or unequally sinuate-crenate or serrulate. h. 80ft. India to Australia, 1874. Tree.
L. Schomburghii versicolor (Schomburgh's various-coloured). l. deep green, irregularly mottled with greyish-green, and variegated with patches of creamy-white, large, alternate, having at their base deciduous herbaceous stipules; petioles fleshy, 1 1/2in. to 2in. long, deep wine-purple, which colour is continued along the midrib and principal side veins. Sometimes, the creamy-white marking covers the whole of the leaf surface on one side the midvein. Polynesia, 1875. A handsome ornamental-leaved plant.