Proclesia
(a name commemorative of Procles, King of Sparta). "The correct name of this genus, according to the authors of the "Genera Plantarum," is Cavendishia. SYN. Polybaea. ORD. Vacciniaceae. A genus comprising about thirty species of handsome, stove, glabrous, evergreen shrubs or small trees, inhabiting the mountains of tropical America. Flowers red, scarlet, white, or flesh-colour, showy, racemose or sub-umbellate, axillary and terminal, pedicellate; calyx tube hemispherical or shortly campanulate, the limb short, dilated, five-lobed or five-toothed; corolla tubular, five-toothed, the teeth valvate; stamens ten. Leaves alternate, persistent, coriacoous, shortly petiolate, entire. The two best-known species are here described. Both are shrubs. For culture, see Thibaudia.
P. acuminata (taper-pointed).* fl. in short racemes, covered, when in bud, by large, scarlet bracts; corolla bright red, with green tips and lobes, 2/3in. long. November. l. sub-distichous, on very short, stout petioles, 2in. to 3in. long, ovate or oblonglanceolate, rounded at base, with long-acuminate or caudate points. Branches pendulous, slightly glabrous or pubescent. Andes of Columbia and Ecuador, 1868. SYN. Thibaudia acuminata (B. M. 5752). The correct name of this plant is Cavendishia acuminata.
P. cordifolia (heart-shape-leaved). fl., corolla bright red, white at the mouth, tubular-ventricose, nearly 1in. long; racemes reduced to a crowded head. December. l. 1 1/2in. to 3in. long, ovate-oblong, obtuse, quite entire, cordate at base; petioles very short, pubescent. Branches terete, pubescent. New Grenada and Ecuador, 1865. SYN. Thibaudia cordifolia (B. M. 5559). The correct name of this plant is Cavendishia cordifolia.