Porana
(said to be the native name in the East Indies). SYNS. Dinetus, Duperrya. ORD. Convolvulaceae. A genus comprising half-a-dozen species of stove or green-house, twining, slender, sometimes very high-climbing, annual herbs or shrubs, natives of the East Indies, the Malayan Archipelago, and Australia. Flowers frequently white, sometimes cymose or racemose at the apices of the branches, sometimes solitary in the axils; sepals sub-equal, stellato-patent; corolla campanulate or infundibuliform; limb plicate, of five broad, spreading lobes. Leaves sometimes cordate, many-nerved: sometimes ecordate, penniveined. The shrubby species are well adapted for training on rafters or pillars, in a stove, or in the warn part of a greenhouse. They thrive best in a compost of sandy loam and leaf mould, and are propagated by cuttings of stubby side shoots, which root readily in a compost similar to that just named. The annual species may be sown in heat, in early spring, and the seedlings either grown on in pots or planted out in the greenhouse or conservatory.
P. paniculata (panicled). fl. pure white, very small, tubularly campanulate; panicle large, much branched, leafy. August. l. cordate, acuminate, glabrous above and hoary beneath, 3in. long, 1 1/2in. broad. Stem terete. East Indies, 1823. Plant shrubby, twining, clothed with hoary tomentum. SYN. Dinetus paniculatus.
P. racemosa (racemose).* fl. white, small; panicles loose-flowered, composed of racemes, leafy. July to November. l. cordate, acuminate, glabrous or downy, 3in. to 4in. long, with a wide recess at the base. Stem terete or angular. India, 1823. Annual. "This is the 'Snow-creeper' of the English, one of the most beautiful of Indian plants, the masses of dazzling white flowers resembling snow patches in the jungle" (C. B. Clarke). (S. B. F. G. 127.) SYN. Dinetus racemosus.
P. volubilis (twining). fl. white, small, numerous; panicles dense-flowered. July. l. cordate, acuminate, glabrous. Stem terete, glabrous, smooth or covered with white warts. East Indies, 1823. Plant shrubby.