Serissa
(a name altered from the old Greek Seris, used by Dioscorides). SYNS. Democritea, Dysoda. ORD. Rubiaceae. A monotypic genus. The species is a pretty, greenhouse, branched shrub, highly glabrous or with puberulous branchlets, the bark foetid. It succeeds best in a mixture of loam, peat, and sand. Propagation may be effected by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat.
S. foetida (stinking). fl. white, axillary or terminal, solitary or fascicled; calyx tube obconical, the limb four to six-parted, persistent; corolla funnel-shaped, pilose within the throat, the limb of four to six short, obtusely three-lobed, erecto-patent lobes. Summer. l. rather small, opposite, sub-sessile, often fascicled on shortened branchlets, sub-coriaceous, ovate, acuminate, nerved. h. 2ft. India, China, Japan, &c., 1787. (B. M. 361, under name of Lycium japonicum.) There is a variety with double flowers (a rare occurrence in this order), and another with gold-margined leaves (I. H. ser. i. 369).