the celebrated garden at Eltham, it had long since disap- 

 peared from amongst us, until procured afresh by Messrs. 

 Colvill of the Chelsea Nursery from France. The reintro- 

 duction into Europe is due to H. S. H. Prince Maximilian 

 bf Neuwied, who had communicated the seeds, brought by 

 himself from the Brazils, to Professor Link. Plants were 

 raised in 1817 at the Berlin Botanic Garden, and published 

 in the work we have quoted by the title of P. bicolor, not 

 having been recognised as P. Vespertllio of Linnaeus. 



The species is remarkable for its hours of blowing, which 

 are from about ten o'clock at night to about eight the next 

 morning. The younger leaves have a short dense scarcely 

 perceptible fur on the under surface, where they are also 

 often more or less tinged with crimson; a circumstance 

 which has suggested the name of discolor. The original 

 title is derived from the form of the leaf, which, with the 

 two glassy eyelike glands just above the petiole, had sug- 

 gested to the fancy of Linfloeus the likeness of a Bat. 



Leaves dark green, extremely broad and shallow, with 

 something of the outline of a bow when strung; studded 

 with several brown irregularly scattered eyelike dots, besides 

 the more remarkable pair on the inside of the base just over 

 the petiole. Branches of the same colour as the leaves, 

 smooth, flat, 2-edged. Peduncles solitary, 1-flowered, wiery, 

 elastic, much slenderer than the petioles, shorter than the 

 leaf, bractelcss. Flowers without an involucre, green on the 

 outside, Avhite within, little more than an inch over. Z7r- 

 ceolus of the c«Z^a? broad and ventricose, furrowless and even, 

 three times shallower than the limb: segments oblong 

 sliglitly tapered blunt pointless keelless. Corolla tender, 

 Avhite : petals of the same shape with the segments of the 

 calyx, but considerably smaller. Crown white; ra-?/^ nume- 

 rous in two rows; outer filiform, spreading, serpentine, 

 blunt, even with the calyx, if not longer^ inner upright, 

 twice shorter, straight, terminated by an acutely bent 

 hook: operculum (lid of the nectarif) white, deeply and 

 closely plaited, vaulted and lapping by the inner edge over 

 the short fleshy partition of the one-chambered nectary. 

 Column rather shorter than the calyx, with a cylindrical 

 reddish smooth shaft. Germen oval^ green^ Opaque. Stig' 

 mas deep green. Anthers pale. 



