156 CXIII. PIPERACEA (BAKER AND WRIGHT). [ Peperomia. 
leaves, about an inch long, with a distinct midrib and two faint lateral 
main nerves. 
27. P. leteviridis, Hngl. Jahrb. xxvi. 361. Stem ascending, 
simple or slightly branched, 1-14 ft. high, rather thick, glabrous. 
Lower leaves alternate, upper opposite, ovate or oblong, about 14 in. 
long, about 1 in. broad, herbaceous, glabrous, bright green, 3-nerved ; 
lateral nerves reaching from the base nearly to the apex; petiole up to 
5 lin. long. Spike solitary, terminal, 2} lin. long; peduncle 9 lin. long ; 
bracts peltate. Stamens short, as long as the bracts. Ovary ovoid; 
stigma minute. 
Upper Guinea. Cameroons: in damp shady places in woods at Lolodorf, 
Staudt, 338. 
Orver CXIV. MYRISTICACEH. (By O. Stapf.) 
Flowers diccious, apetalous. Perianth 3- (rarely 2-5-) lobed or 
partite, infundibuliform to globose or patelliform; lobes valvate. Male 
flower: Stamens 2-30; filaments united into a central, sometimes 
very short column; anthers arranged in a ring and adnate to the column 
or free or fused into a globular mass, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally ; 
rudimentary ovary 0, Female flower: Staminodes 0. Ovary superior, 
sessile, 1-celled; stigma sessile or subsessile, usually more or less 
minutely 2-lobed; ovule 1, subbasal, anatropous. Fruit fleshy, nearly 
always dehiscing by 2 valves. Seed erect, with a thin or fleshy, 
entire, lobed or laciniate, frequently vividly coloured aril; testa of 3 
layers, the outer membranous or fleshy, the middle crustaceous or 
woody, the inner membranous, usually intruding into the folds of the 
often ruminate endosperm; endosperm replete with fat and often 
also starch. Embryo small or very small, near the base; cotyledons 
ascending and divergent or divaricate or connate into a disk or cup.— 
Trees, frequently aromatic. Leaves alternate, entire, penninerved, 
often with pellucid dots (oil-glands). Flowers small or very small, 
particularly the male, fascicled, racemose, umbellate or capitate; the 
partial inflorescences often gathered in panicles, racemes, or compound 
heads, frequently bracteate, but generally without bracteoles ; female 
inflorescences usually less compound than the male and fewer. In- 
ee axillary (sometimes from the axils of fallen or arrested 
eaves). 
Species about 235, in the tropics of both hemispheres, 
In adopting the genera as proposed by Professor Warburg in his exhaustive 
monograph of the Myristicacee, rather than reducing them to subdivisions of one 
large genus, Myristica, I was mainly led by two considerations: first, the appre- 
ciation of the great progress, marked by that monograph, in our knowledge of the 
family ; and, secondly, the conviction that no good could be done by breaking away, 
in a work like this and in dealing with so small a number of species, from a con- 
ception of the family which has all the merit of thoroughness and consistency- 
