Stephanotis
(from stephanos, a crown, and ous, otos, an ear; alluding to the auricles of the staminal crown). SYN. Jasminanthes. ORD. Asclepiadeae. A genus comprising about fourteen species of glabrous, twining, often tallclimbing, stove shrubs; five are found in Madagascar, five in the Malayan Archipelago and South China, three in Cuba, and one in Peru. Flowers white, large, simple, in umbelliform cymes; calyx five-parted, the segments somewhat leafy; corolla salver-shaped or nearly funnel-shaped, the tube cylindrical, broader at the base, and dilated at the throat, the limb of five twisted lobes; coronal scales five, erect, often free at apex. Leaves opposite, coriaceous. Only two of the species have been introduced. S. floribunda is a beautiful and very popular, stove plant, because of its fragrant, pure white blossoms, which are produced in great profusion. It succeeds best in turfy loam, and may be increased by cuttings of the previous year's growth, inserted singly in pots, in spring, and placed in a close frame with a temperature of 60 deg. Established plants do best when placed in a bed of prepared soil, about 3ft. square, and the growths trained to a trellis beneath the roof. S. Thouarsii thrives under similar treatment.
S. floribunda (bundle-flowered).* Clustered Wax Flower; Madagascar Chaplet Flower; Madagascar Jasmine. fl. of the purest white, highly fragrant, borne freely in large bunches; sepals ovate, obtuse, one-fourth as long as the corolla tube; segments of the corolla ovate-oblong; coronal scales ovate, shorter than the anthers; peduncles short, scarcely equalling the petioles. May. l. oval or ovate-elliptic, ample, of great substance, retuse or very shortly uncinate-acuminate. h. 10ft. Madagascar, 1839. (B. v. 203; B. M. 4058; G. C. n. s., xiv. p. 169; P. M. B. xi. 29.) The Elvaston variety is a compact-growing, floriferous form (G. C. n. s., xiv., p. 169.) S. Thouarsii (Thouars'). fl., sepals ovate-lanceolate, one-third the length of the corolla tube; coronal scales lanceolate, exceeding the anthers; peduncles equalling the petioles, three flowered. May. l. obovate or obovate-oblong, shortly acuminate. h. 10ft. Madagascar, 1842.
