Pentarhaphia
(from pente, five, and raphis, a needle; referring to the form of the open calyx). SYNS. Conradia, Gesneria. ORD. Gesneraceae. A genus of about forty species of stove, branched shrubs, or low sub-shrubs, mostly natives of the West Indies, a few being also found in Columbia or Central America. Calyx with an obconical or turbinate tube and five equal, narrow lobes; corolla usually scarlet (sometimes green?), with an incurved tube, and an oblique or sub-bilabiate five-lobed limb; pedicels elongated and solitary in the axils, or shorter and fascicled, or on an axillary, trichotomous, many-flowered peduncle. Leaves alternate, at the tips of the branches, or often crowded on short stems, frequently oblique. The following species are those best known in gardens. For culture, see Gesnera.
P. cubensis (Cuban). fl. scarlet, tubular, about 1in. long, solitary in the axils of the leaves; peduncle brown, 1in. long. Summer, l. dark green, convex, evergreen, obovate, crenated near the point, and netted on the under side with green veins on a pale ground. h. 2ft. Cuba, 1854. A compact-habited shrub. (B. M. 4829; F. d. S. 297.) P. floribunda (bundle-flowered).* fl. red, numerous, axillary, tubular, distended above the middle, the limb shortly three-lobed and irregular, the throat open. Summer. l. lanceolate, bullate above. Cuba, 1878. A dwarf, bushy-habited sub-shrub, more or less covered with close, reddish down. (R. H. Jan. 16, 1878.) P. libanensis (Mont-Liban).* fl. crimson, fascicled in the axils; corolla tube longer than the lobes; pedicels short, at length excrescent. June. l. spathulate-oblong, unequally serrate, and repand, membranous, roughish, rugose, scabrous on the ribs beneath. h. 4in. Jamaica, 1847. Sub-shrv b. (B. M. 4380, under name of Gesnera libanensis; F. d. S. 178, under name of Rhytidophyllum floribundum.) P. neglecta (neglected). fl. on short, one-flowered peduncles; corolla tube broadly campanulate, as long as, or longer than, the broad lips. September. l. spathulate-oblong, bluntish, crenate above, tapering into the short petiole, membranous. h. 4in. Jamaica, 1847. Sub-shrub.