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Palicourea (Named after Le Palicour)

(named after Le Palicour, of Guiana). SYNS. Colladonia, Galvania and Stephanium. Including Nonatelia and Rhodostoma. ORD. Rubiaceae. A genus comprising about 100 species of stove, tropical American shrubs, of variable habit, with terete or four-angled branchlets. Flowers variously coloured (never blue), small or rather large, disposed in sessile or usually pedunculate, terminal or rarely axillary, compound corymbs, racemes, or thyrses; calyx with a hemispherical or turbinate tube, and an entire or five-lobed limb; corolla tube elongated, straight or curved, the limb of five short or elongated, simple or valvate lobes. Fruit a globose, rarely oblong, berry. Leaves opposite or whorled; stipules variable. The following species are occasionally seen in cultivation; they thrive best in a sandy-loam and peat compost. Propagation may be effected, in spring, by cuttings, which should be inserted in sand, under a glass, in a gentle hotbed. P. apicata (crowned-fruited). fl. yellow, in cymose, sessile panicles. June to August. l. oblong, short-acuminated, narrow at the base, coriaceous. Branches terete. h. 4ft. to 6ft. Caraccas, 1824.

P. crocea (saffron-coloured). fl. orange, on terminal, corymbose, saffron-coloured peduncles. June. l. ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, stiffish, with prominent veins. h. 4ft. to 6ft. West Indies, &c., 1823. P. gardenioides (Gardenia-like). fl. white, disposed in mostly terminal cymes; corolla much longer than the calyx, tubular, funnel-shaped. Winter and summer. l. opposite, obovate-lanceolate, acuminate, attenuated into the short petioles, dark green and shining above, paler beneath. h. 2ft. South America, 1759. SYN. Rhodostoma gardenioides. (G. M. B. 1850, 65.) P. lutea (yellow). fl. yellow, disposed in erect panicles; corolla tube narrow at the base, long; segments of the limb acute. June and July. l. broad-ovate, acuminated; stipules bluntly two-lobed. h. 1ft. French Guiana, 1823. P. ornata (adorned). l. elliptic, acuminate, narrowed towards the base, of a satiny olive-green, with the costa and principal veins deep rosy-crimson, the olive tint passing into emerald-green near the base of the midrib; under surface purple. Stems erect, purplish, terete. South America, 1875. P. Pavetta (Pavetta). fl. white, very sweet-scented, with a funnel-shaped corolla, which is a little curved; corymbs terminal, pedunculate, with brachiate, trichotomous branches. August. l. ovate-lanceolate, acuminated, thin, nerved. Branches terete. h. 2ft. West Indies, &c., 1823. P. racemosa (racemose). fl. white, small, bracteolate at the base; thyrse panicled, a little longer than the petioles. June. fr. globose, five-angled, five-celled. l. elliptical-oblong, acuminated at both ends, petiolate. h. 2ft. to 3ft. Guiana, 1818.

P. rigida (stiff). fl. yellow; panicles on long peduncles, spreading; corolla clothed with very fine down. August. l. elliptic, acutish, rounded at the base, almost sessile, coriaceous. Branches bluntly tetragonal. h. 3ft. Tropical South America, &c., 1820.

P. violacea (violet). fl. white, bracteate; thyrse many-flowered, about half the length of the leaves. Berries violet, about the size of currants. June and July. l. elliptic, acuminated, tapering into the short petioles at the base. h. 4ft. to 5ft. Guiana, 1824.