84 
rather more than half their length. The seeds are scobiform, 
quite smooth, not at all reticulated, with a lax testa, which is 
prolonged at each end into a tapering withered sac, but fits 
pretty tight to the seed in the middle. Each seed, including 
its testa, is rather more than half a line long. 
134. COTYLEDON cristata. Haworth in Phil. Mag. 1827. p. 123. DC. 
prodr. 3. 399. 
For this little known plant I am obliged to William Brent, 
Esq. of Walworth, who obtained it from the Botanical Gar- 
den of Leyden, and succeeded iu flowering it. It is very 
well described by Haworth, so far as his account of it goes; 
but since M. Denak regarded it as one of the species in- 
sufficiently known, it deserves to be noticed more particularly. 
The stem is very short, and closely covered with leaves, 
from between the touching bases of which there proceeds a 
number of light brown threads, described by Haworth as 
rufous hairs, but in reality withered roots, emitted by the 
leaves; but perishing after exposure to the air. The leaves 
themselves have a singular form ; they are described techni- 
cally as being wedge-shaped, triangular, stalked, and ter- 
minated by a curled crest; but in more homely terms they 
look very like a jelly-bag, or a filter sewed up åt the upper 
edge, and thrown on its side so as to acquire a flattened 
figure; they are covered with very short hairs, which are 
obtuse, and placed perpendicularly upon the epidermis, so 
that the leaves have a súrface like that of fine woollen cloth. 
I find nothing like the furfuraceous hairiness described by 
Haworth, who mistook for scurfiness a great number of pallid 
specks, indicating subcutaneous air chambers, with which the 
epidermis is thickly studded. The flowering stem is an erect 
spike, about three feet high, covered with close-pressed slen- 
der green flowers, tipped with pink, about half an inch long, 
and rather longer than the internodes. The corolla is com- 
pletely monopetalous, the limb only, which is revolute, being 
divided into five segments. The stamens grow to the sides 
of the corolla, those opposite the petals being a little longer 
than the others. The carpels are distinct, slender, rather . 
downy near the base; the scales beneath them are white, and 
emarginate. 
The plant is a very curious species, but it has nothing 
beautiful in its appearance. 
