Tussacia
(named after F. R. de Tussac, a French botanist, who wrote a Flora of the Antilles in 1808). SYN. Chrysothemis. ORD. Gesneraceae. A small genus (four or five species) of stove herbs, with creeping, simple or branched rhizomes, natives of the West Indies, Guiana, and Columbia. Calyx often scarlet, free, ample, campanulate, five-angled or five-winged; corolla yellow, lined with purple, the tube rather broadly cylindrical, the limb oblique, erecto-patent, broadly five-lobed; stamens included; peduncles umbellately many-flowered, in the upper axils, disposed in a terminal corymb. Leaves opposite, often ample; upper floral ones reduced to bracts. The only species introduced are here described. Both are perennials. For culture, see Gesnera. T. nitida (shining). A synonym of Catopsis nitida.
T. pulchella (pretty).* fl., calyx red, the lobes deltoid, serrated; corolla nearly regular, 1in. to 1 1/3in. long, the tube erect, cylindrical, half as long again as the calyx. July. l. ovate or ovate-oblong, acute, 3in. to 7in. long, crenate-serrate above the narrow-cuneate base, scarcely petiolate. h. 1ft. West Indies, 1830. SYN. Besleria pulchella (B. M. 1146; L. B. C. 1028). T. semi-clausa (half-closed). fl., calyx cinnabar-red, campanulate, truncate; corolla golden-yellow, radiately striped with crimson-purple; umbels forming short, terminal panicles. l. broadly ovate, pubescent, dentate-ciliate, bright green. Stems branching, fleshy, spotted with red. Brazil, 1870. A showy plant. (I. H. ser. iii. 28.) In some varieties, the stems and petioles are violet-coloured.