1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Achimenes

ACHIMENES (perhaps from the Gr. ἀχαιμενίς, an 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.