Stemodia
(from stemon, a stamen, and dis, double; alluding to the anthers, which consist of two separate cells). SYN. Unanuea. Including Matourea. ORD. Scrophularineae. A genus comprising about twenty-six species of stove, greenhouse, or half-hardy, often aromatic herbs, sometimes sub-shrubs, inhabiting tropical and Southern extra-tropical America, tropical Africa and Asia, and Australia. Flowers generally bluish, solitary in the axils, or the upper ones clustered in leafy or bracted spikes; corolla tube cylindrical, the upper lip broad, entire or emarginate, the lower one spreading or three-lobed; stamens four, didynamous; anthers two-celled. Leaves opposite, or in whorls of three or four. Only two species call for description here. These thrive in any rich, moist soil, and may be readily multiplied by division of the roots. S. chilensis (Chilian). fl., corolla nearly twice as long as the calyx, the lower lip glabrous; spikes terminal, leafy, at length elongated and interrupted. September. l. oblong or lanceolate, 1in. to 2in. long, unequally serrated, acute, cordate-amplexicaul or auriculate at base. Stem above 1ft. high, branched above. Chili, 1829. Plant very viscous, half-hardy. (B. R. 1470.) S. lobelioides (Lobelia-like). fl. of an intense blue; corolla nearly twice as long as the calyx, but smaller than in S. chilensis; spikes terminal, somewhat panicled, leafy, at length slightly elongated. August. l. oblong-lanceolate, acute, unequally serrated, narrowed towards the base, and often dilated-amplexicaul. h. 1ft. Brazil, 1830. Plant glabrous, half-hardy. (B. M. 3134, under name of Gratiola tetragona.)