Schwannia
(named in honour of Theodor Schwann, a physician at Bonn). SYN. Fimbriaria. ORD. Malpighiaceae. A small genus (five species) of stove, evergreen, climbing shrubs, confined to Brazil. Flowers red; calyx deeply five-cleft, with eight glands; petals shortly clawed, fringed; stamens six, unequal, all fertile; filaments unequally monadelphous, glabrous; umbels or racemes four-flowered, often paniculate, terminal; peduncles bracteate base, bibracteolate at apex. Leaves opposite, entire, petiolate, glandless; stipules inconspicuous. S. elegans, the only species introduced, is a desirable shrub, thriving in a compost of loam, leaf mould, and sand. It may be increased by ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
S. elegans (elegant). fl., petals pubescent; umbel paniculate; stamens scarcely exserted; peduncles and calyx silky. June. l. ovate or sub-orbicular, acuminate, beneath softly and densely pubescent; petioles having four to six glands. Branchlets silky. 1842.