GEISSOMERIA (from geisson, a tile, and meris, a part; the imbricated bracts fall over each other like tiles on a roof). SYN. Salpixantha. ORD. Acanthaceoe. A genus containing about ten species of stove evergreen, pubescent or glabrous shrubs, of which one is from Jamaica and the rest from Brazil or Guiana. Flowers red, often velvety, long, in simple terminal spikes or paniculate racemes; calyx five-parted; corolla tubular, dilated upwards. Leaves oval or oblong, entire. Stems tetragonal. The plants thrive in a compost of loam and peat, with the addition of sand and a little rotten cow-dung. Cuttings, procured from rather firm shoots, root easily during summer, if inserted in sandy soil, covered with a bell glass, and placed in bottom heat. The species best known to cultivation are those described below. GEISSOMERIA coccinea (scarlet).* fl. scarlet, sessile, decussate in loose spikes; peduncles axillary, solitary, pendulous, or terminal by threes. August. l. ovate, coriaceous, entire. h. 3ft. Jamaica, 1842. (B. M. 4158, under name of Salpixantha coccinea.) GEISSOMERIA longiflora (long-flowered). fl., corolla scarlet, tubular, velvety, with an arcuate, clavate, somewhat ventricose tube, which is smooth inside; spikes terminal and axillary. October. l. opposite, ovate-lanceolate, wavy, sessile, tapering to the base, smooth above, somewhat pubescent beneath, silky at the veins. h. 3ft. Brazil, 1826. A splendid free-flowering plant. (B. R. 1045.)