ACHIMENES (perhaps from the Gr. km/

See also:

• ASPIC (French, from Lat..aspis)

aspic, an

See also:

• INDIAN

Indian plant used in magic)  , a genus of plants, natural order Gesneraceae (to which .belong also Gloxinia and Streptocarpus), natives of tropical America, and well known in cultivation as stove or warm greenhouse plants . They are herbaceous perennials, generally with hairy serrated leaves and handsome flowers . The corolla is tubular with a spreading limb, and varies widely in colour, being white, yellow, orange, crimson, scarlet, blue or purple . A large number of hybrids exist in cultivation . The plants are grown in the stove till the flowering period, when they may be removed to the greenhouse . They are propagated by cuttings, or from the leaves, which are cut off and pricked in well-drained pots of sandy soil, or by the scales from the underground tubes, which are rubbed off and sown like seeds, or by the seeds, which are very small .