Manettia
(named after Xavier Manetti, Prefect of the Botanic Gardens at Florence in the middle of the eighteenth century). SYNS. Bellardia, Conotrichia, Guagnebina, Lygistum, and Nacibea. ORD. Rubiaceae. A genus of thirty species of very ornamental, stove, evergreen, herbaceous or suffruticose climbers, natives of tropical America and sub-tropical Australia, allied to Bouvardia. Flowers white, blue, or red, on axillary peduncles; corolla funnel-shaped, with a terete tube and a hairy throat; peduncles one or many-flowered. Leaves ovate-oblong, or sub-cordate; stipules broad, short, acute. The species are of easy culture in a compost of peat, loam, and sand, in equal parts. Many are exceedingly useful for growing on a trellis, a rafter, or pillar, pruning occasionally where very strong growth is made. Propagation is effected by cuttings, made of the young shoots, and inserted in a sandy soil, in bottom heat.
M. bicolor (two-coloured). fl. bright scarlet at the lower portion, yellow towards the apical part of the tube, solitary and axillary. March. l. lanceolate, tapering to a point, bright green, opposite. Organ Mountains, 1843. (F. d. S. 61.) M. coccinea (scarlet). fl. having a white tube spotted with red, a throat closed by yellow hairs, and four oval-acute lobes, which are scarlet and villous above; peduncles axillary, racemose, few flowered. May and June. l. ovate, acuminated, glabrous, shining. Branches tetragonal. French Guiana, 1806. (B. R. 693.) M. cordifolia (cordate-leaved). fl. scarlet, 1in. long, villous inside; peduncles axillary, one-flowered. August to October. l. ovate, cordate at the base, acute at the apex, pubescent. Brazil, 1832. A very useful species, flowering from winter until early summer. (B. M. 3202.) M. micans (glittering). fl. rich orange, with yellowish lobes; panicles leafy, many-flowered. Early winter. l. ovate-lanceolate, cordate at the base, bright shining green, on very short petioles. Magna, Peru, 1865. A very handsome, strong-growing species, and one of the best in cultivation. (B. M. 5495.)