134 ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOCYNACEZ. 
acuminate, 4 in. long, 4 in. thick; seeds with a slender rostrum half their length, 
terminated by a coma as long as the seed. 
2. STIPECOMA PELTATA, nob.: Echites peltata, Vell. Fl. Flum. p. 110, Icon. iii. tab. 32; A. DC. (in 
parte) J. c. p. 465; Müll. (in parte) l. c. p. 159 (excl. tab. 53. fig. 2). In Brasilia, prov. Rio de 
Janeiro, in montibus : non vidi. 
, Velloz found this species on the confines of that province, on the road leading from 
Cunha to Santa Cruz. The plants cited by Müller as constituting it belong to another 
species (mucronata), which I found in the Organ Mountains; and it is manifest that 
neither he nor De Candolle had seen Velloz's plant, which has much larger leaves and a 
different inflorescence. This species has much larger leaves than any of the others (if we 
except S. macrocalyx). Its branches are more than 3 lines thick; the oblong-ovate 
leaves are orbicular at the base, shortly acute at the summit, quite glabrous, 93 in. long, 
63 in. broad, the insertion of the stout petiole (3 in. long) being 2 in. from the base; 
opposite axillary racemes, shorter than the young leaves from which they spring; the 
peduncle 1 in. long, bears about 3 alternate flowers, supported by as many oblong bracts 
5 lines long; the pedicels, 6 lines long, bear in the middle 2 acute bracteoles 24 lines 
long; sepals acutely oblong, 9 lines long, 24 lines broad; corolla large, sulphur-coloured ; 
tube cylindrical, stoutish, constricted in the middle, 13 in. long; segments spathulate- 
oblong, inequilateral, obliquely truncate, 1 in. long, 5 lines broad; stamens seated in 
the contraction of the tube; anthers acute, 4lines long; disk sub-5-lobed, as long as 
the ovaries, which they embrace; 2 follicles teretely cylindrical, a little arcuate, con- 
joined firmly at the summit, smooth, 8 in. long, 9 lines thick; seeds acutely oblong, 
1 in. long, including a rostrum of half their length ; apical coma 1 in. long. 
3. STIPECOMA PLICATA, nob.: Echites plicata, A. DC. 1. c. p. 454: Echites peltata, Müll. (non Velloz) 
l. c. p. 159. In prov. Rio de Janeiro, ad ped. Mont. Organ. : v. s. in herb. meo (22. 206) ex loc. cit. 
sine flore (Mrs. Fry). 
The above specimen agrees in all respects with the diagnosis of De Candolle; the in- 
florescence I have not seen. It is a climbing plant, with flexuose, fistular, angular, 
striate branches, sparsely covered with fulvous tomentum, its axils being 13-2 in. apart; 
leaves ovate-oblong, rounded and plicately undulate at the base, suddenly narrowed at 
the summit by an acute reflexed acumen, chartaceous, margins cartilaginous and sub- 
revolute, above olive-green, opake, finely corrugulate, with 7 basal radiating nerves, and 
7 pairs of lateral divergent immersed nerves, below fulvo-ochraceous, opake, obsoletely 
tomentous, with prominent reddish costa and straight nerves, all arcuately conjoined 
within the margin, and immersed transverse veins; they are 34-5 in. long, 12-21 in. broad, 
on stout petioles 1-11 in. long, inserted ¿4 in. within the margin, patent or subdeflexed at 
the base. The inflorescence, according to De Candolle, is axillary, short, 1- or 2-flowered, 
subtomentous, on a very short peduncle, with 2 or 4 bracts 3 lines long; pedicels 6 lines 
long; sepals obtusely oblong, glabrous, shorter than the pedicels; corolla yellow, glabrous; 
tube 9 lines long, thicker above the calyx, and there pilose and staminigerous within; 
