Themistoclesia
(named in honour of the Greek statesman Themistocles). Including Centrostemma. ORD. Vacciniaceae. A small genus (four species) of glabrous, villous, or pubescent, stove, evergreen shrubs, with slender, pendulous branchlets, inhabiting the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela. Flowers disposed in short racemes; calyx tube continuous with the pedicel, campanulate or obconical, the limb minutely five-toothed; corolla tubular, the base or middle of the tube slightly swollen, the limb small, with five recurved teeth; stamens ten, as long as the corolla. Leaves alternate, sub-sessile, rounded or cordate at base, ovate, long caudate-acuminate, coriaceous. T. coronilla, the only species calling for description here, thrives in a compost of turfy loam, peat, and sand. It may be increased by cuttings, which readily root in sand or soil, with or without the protection of a glass.
T. coronilla (small-crowned). fl., calyx short, pale green; corolla dark red and shining, glabrous, narrow-urceolate or tubular and inflated below, obscurely five-angled; pedicels axillary, solitary or in pairs. January. l. numerous, spreading and deflexed, 1/2in. long, obtuse, entire, often glabrescent above, pale beneath. Branches stout, and, as well as the leaves, peduncles, and calyces, softly hairy. Venezuela, 1866. A small shrub. (I. H. n. s. 33.) SYN. Thibaudia coronaria (B. M. 5575).