Smeathmannia
(named after Smeathmann, a naturalist, who travelled in Africa, and collected many botanical specimens). SYN. Bulowia. ORD. Passifloreae. A genus comprising four species of beautiful, stove, evergreen shrubs, with robust, terete branchlets, natives of Western tropical Africa. Flowers white, inodorous, rather large, axillary, sub-solitary, shortly pedunculate, bibracteolate; calyx with a very short tube, and five oblong lobes; petals five, slightly longer than the calyx; corona coriaceous, ciliated, urceolate, crenulated or lobed; stamens about twenty. Leaves oblong, coriaceous, serrated; petioles bearing one to four glands at the apex. The species, two of which have been introduced, are remarkable for their erect habit, in a natural order including so many creepers and twiners. A compost of loam, peat, and sand, is best suited to the requirements of these shrubs. Propagation may be effected by half-ripened cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in heat. S. laevigata (smooth-stalked). fl. curved downwards; petals oblong, spreading, as well as the calyx; stamens and pistil elongated, on a short, thick stipes. July. l. alternate, somewhat distichous, coarsely serrated, tapering at the base into a short petiole. Branches spreading. h. 6ft. 1823. (B. M. 4194.) S. pubescens (downy). fl. large, on short, axillary peduncles; sepals and petals acute and spreading; stigmas downy. February. l. alternate, shortly petiolate, oblong, glossy, acute, penninerved, sinuately dentate, obtuse at the base; petioles scarcely two lines long, with very conspicuous glands. Branches terete; young ones, as well as the petioles, midribs of the leaves beneath, peduncles, and sepals, ferruginously hairy. h. 6ft. 1845. (B. M. 4364.)