Leycesteria
(named after William Leycester, once Chief Judge of the principal native court under the Bengal Presidency). ORD. Caprifoliaceae. A monotypic genus, the species being a very handsome hardy, or nearly hardy, deciduous shrub, with a rambling habit and elongated fistular branches, which rise from scaly buds. It is a distinct and interesting plant, well deserving of a much more extended cultivation than it now enjoys. L. formosa thrives in any moderately good garden soil, and is propagated by cuttings of the short young shoots, made in spring; by older ones, made in autumn, and placed under a handlight; or by seeds, sown in spring.
L. formosa (handsome).* fl. white, with a tinge of purple, middle-sized, sessile, in fascicles, disposed in approximate whorls of fives and sixes, the whole forming short leafy drooping racemes, which terminate the branches and branchlets; corolla funnel-shaped, having the tube gibbous above the base, and the limb campanulate and divided into five ovate nearly equal lobes; bracts large, leafy, purplish, pubescent, generally six under each whorl of flowers. Summer. l. opposite, ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, petiolate, smooth, entire. h. 4ft. to 6ft. Temperate Himalayas, 1824. Pheasants are said to be fond of the fruit of this species, which is recommended as a good covert plant. (B. M. 3699.)