Rhynchoglossum
(from rhynchos, a beak, and glossa, a tongue; the lower lip of the flower is in the form of a tongue-like beak). SYNS. Antonia, Loxotis. ORD. Gesneraceae. A genus of one or two species of closely-related, erect, slightly-branched stove herbs, broadly dispersed over the East Indies and the Malayan Archipelago. Flowers blue, rather large, shortly pedicellate, pendulous; calyx broadly tubular-campanulate, shortly five-fid; corolla tube cylindrical, loosely incurved; limb bilabiate, the dorsal lobe shortly bifid, the anterior one much larger and trifid, the lateral ones shorter; racemes terminal, or at length opposite the leaves, secund, loose. Leaves alternate, ample, membranous, very unequilateral. R. zeylanicum is a pretty annual, or at most biennial, requiring culture similar to Klugia (which see). R. zeylanicum (Cingalese). fl. in long, terminal, sometimes interrupted, sometimes leafy, racemes; corolla blue, paler and almost white beneath, with a little yellow. July. l. alternate, petiolate, somewhat ovate, entire, closely penninerved. h. about 1ft. Ceylon, 1844. (B. M. 4198.)