Ramondia
(named in honour of L. F. Ramond, a French botanist and traveller, who died in 1827). SYNS. Chaixia, Myconia. ORD. Gesneraceae. A genus comprising three species of hardy, stemless herbs; one is a native of South Europe, the second is Siberian, and the third is an inhabitant of Greece, &c. Calyx free, with four, five, or rarely six ovate or oblong segments; corolla violet or pale purplish, with a rotate or broadly campanulate tube, and four, five, or rarely six broad, imbricating lobes; stamens affixed to the base of the corolla; scapes leafless, one or few-flowered. Leaves radical, softly rugose. Only two species are in cultivation. R. pyrenaica is a very pretty little alpine plant, admirably adapted for cultivating in fissures of rockwork, or for pot culture in cold frames. In thrives in welldrained peaty soil, and may be increased by seeds, or by division. R. serbica requires similar treatment.
R. pyrenaica (Pyrenean).* Rosette Mullein. fl. purple; calyx and corolla five-parted, the latter with sub-obovate lobes; scapes many, several, or rarely one-flowered. May. l. rosulate, ovate, deeply toothed, hirsute with long, rufous hairs. h. 3in. Pyrenees, &c., 1731. (R. G. 703.) SYN. Verbascum Myconi (B. M. 236). There is a white-flowered variety of this in cultivation, but it is yet very rare in gardens.
R. serbica (Servian). fl., corolla yellow, campanulate, parted to the middle in four obovate, sub-equal segments; scape one or two-flowered, ebracteate. l. rather thick, ovate, entire, obtuse, shortly attenuated at base, white-silky above, ferruginously woolly beneath, 1in. long. Thessaly. SYN. Jankaea Heldreichii.