Physidium
(from physa, a bladder, and eidos, resemblance; in allusion to the shape of the lower lip). SYNS. Schelveria, Thylacantha. ORD. Scrophularineae. A small genus of stove herbs, or rarely sub-shrubs, natives of South America, now regarded, by Bentham and Hooker, as synonymous with Angelonia (which see for culture).
P. cornigerum (horn-bearing).* fl. rich purple, deeper toward the mouth, the upper segments sprinkled with velvety dots, the intermediate one of the lower lip furnished at base with a horn-like process; peduncles single-flowered, hairy. August. l., lower ones opposite, lanceolate; the rest alternate but approximate, small and bract-like. h. 1ft. or more. Brazil, 1839. Annual. SYN. Angelonia cornigera (B. M. 3848).
P. Gardneri (Gardner's). fl. purple, white in the centre, dotted with red, handsome, in long, terminal, leafy, bracteate racemes; pedicels solitary in the bracts. May. l. opposite, lanceolate, sessile, acuminate, regularly serrated. Stem erect, about 3ft. high; branches, as well as the leaves and peduncles, glandular-pubescent. Pernambuco, 1838. Sub-shrub. SYN. Angelonia Gardneri (B. M. 3754).