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Strophanthus (From strophos a twisted cord)

(from strophos, a twisted cord or rope, and anthos, a flower; alluding to the produced corolla segments). ORD. Apocynaceae. A genus comprising about eighteen species of stove or greenhouse, glabrous, pubescent, or villous shrubs or small trees, often climbing, natives of tropical Africa and Asia, one being found in South Africa. Flowers white, yellowish, orange, red, or purple, showy, rarely small; calyx five-parted; corolla funnel-shaped, the throat partly closed by ten scales; lobes five, twisted, usually produced into five very long, tail-like appendages; stamens affixed at the summit of the tube; cymes terminal, sometimes dense and few-flowered, sometimes corymbose and many-flowered. Leaves opposite, penniveined. All the species which have been introduced to cultivation are described below. They are both interesting and beautiful shrubs, of easy culture in a compost of sandy loam and peat. Propagation may be readily effected by cuttings, inserted in sand, under a glass, in a little heat.

S. Bullenianus (Bullen's). fl. salver-shaped, having a pinkish tube and a yellow limb marked with purplish spots, the long, tail-like apices of the limb segments being purple; cymes loosely branched. Summer. l. elliptic-oblong, on short petioles. Western tropical Africa, 1870. A hispid, stove climber. (G. C. 1870, p. 1471.) S. capensis (Cape of Good Hope). fl. yellowish; corolla lobes 1 1/2in. long; peduncles terminal, longer than the leaves, two to four-flowered. June. l. approximate, ternate, obversely lanceolate, obtuse or sub-acute, 1 1/2in. long, attenuated into a petiole two lines long. Branches erect, glabrous. h. 3ft. Cape of Good Hope, 1860. Greenhouse. (B. M. 5713.) S. dichotomus (dichotomously-branched). fl. whitish; tails of corolla segments purple, 3in. long; scales curled. February and March. l. oblong or oblong-obovate, 4in. long, acute and narrowed at base, abruptly acuminate at apex; petioles three to four lines long. Branches and peduncles dichotomous. h. 3ft. East Indies, 1816. Stove.

S. divergens (diverging). fl. greenish; throat of corolla striped with red, the lobes 1 1/2in. to 1 3/4in. long; cymes few-flowered. June. l. elliptic-oblong, almost acute at both ends. mucronulate at apex, glabrous. h. 4ft. China, 1816. Stove. (B. 150 and B. R. 469, under name of S. dichotomus chinensis.) S. sarmentosus (sarmentose). fl. reddish-purple, fasciculate, lateral and terminal, or ternate; calyx lobes 1/3in. long; lobes of the corolla nearly 2in. long. June. l. elliptic, acuminate, slightly acute at the base. Branches cylindrical, sarmentose. h. 5ft. Sierra Leone, 1824. Stove.