Wrightia
(named after William Wright, 1740-1827, a Scotch physician and botanist). Palay or Ivory-tree. SYN. Balfouria. ORD. Apocynaceae. A genus including about a dozen species of stove shrubs or small trees, with often slender, cord-like branches, natives of tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia. Flowers red, white, or yellow, in terminal or sub-axillary, sessile cymes; calyx short, five-parted, with glands or scales inside; corolla salver-shaped, the tube cylindric, usually short, the throat with one or two series of usually fimbriated scales; stamens at the top of the tube; filaments short, dilated. Leaves opposite, penniveined. The best-known species are here described. They thrive in a mixture of peat, loam, and sand. Cuttings root readily if inserted in sand, in heat.
W. coccinea (scarlet).* fl. dark red, 1in. in diameter; corolla thick, almost fleshy; scales crimson; cymes three or four-flowered. July. l. elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 3in. to 5in. long, membranous, obtusely caudate-acuminate, acute at base; petioles very short. h. 12ft. and upwards. India, 1822. A glabrous or pubescent tree. (B. M. 2696.) SYN. Nerium coccineum (L. B. C. 894).
W. dubia (doubtful). fl., corolla lobes yellow outside, orange red within, ten lines long, spreading, acuminate; pedicels rather shorter than the flowers; cymes three-flowered, glabrous. June. l. ovate-lanceolate, 3in. to 4in. long, glabrous, slightly undulated, rather obtusely acuminate. Native country uncertain, 1813. Shrub. SYN. Cameraria dubia (B. M. 1646). W. pubescens (downy). fl. white, sessile or shortly pedicellate; cymes terminal, trichotomous, corymbose, not exceeding the leaves; corolla tube scarcely exceeding the calyx, the lobes twice as long. March. l. shortly petiolate, ovate to elliptic-oblong, acuminate, 2in. to 4in. long. North Australia, 1829. A pubescent or velvety-tomentose, tall shrub or small tree. W. tinctoria (dyers'). Pala Indigo-plant. fl. white, 1/2in. to 3/4in. in diameter; cymes sometimes 5in. in diameter, with slender, spreading, dichotomous branches. Summer. l. elliptic-ovate, elliptic-lanceolate, or obovate-oblong, 3in. to 5in. long, obtusely acuminate or caudate, acute or rounded at base; petioles very short. India, 1812. A small, glabrous tree. (B. F. S. 241; B. R. 933.)