Tas. 6815. 
MACROSCEPIS OBOVATA, 
Native of Western Tropical America. 
Nat. Ord. AScLEPIADER.— Tribe CYNANCHER. 
Genus Macrosceris, Humb. Bonpl. et Kth.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. 
vol. ii. p. 751.) 
Macroscepris obovata ; hirsutissima, caule yolubili, foliis subpanduriformi-obovatis 
caudato-acuminatis basi cordatis, petiolo brevi, cymis axillaribus densifloris, 
floribus breviter pedicellatis brunneis, calycis segmentis ovato-lanceolatis 
hirsutis, corolla tubo glabro calyce equilongo, lobis tubo equilongis late ovatis 
obtusis ciliolatis intus papillosis, coronze squamis crassis confluentibus. 
M. obovata, Humb. Bonpl. et Kth. Nov. Gen. et Sp. vol. iii. p. 201, t. 283; 
Synops. vol. ii. p. 281; Dene. in DC. Prodr. vol. viii. p. 599. 
The singular plant here figured is a native of various | 
parts of the coast of tropical South America, from Mexico 
to Peru. Humboldt discovered it in the Bay of Campeachy ; 
Galleotti collected it on the sandy shores of the district of 
Oaxaca in Mexico, where he describes it as forming hedges ; 
Spruce found it on the river Daule in Guayaquil, and 
Purdie on the plains near Molina in the province of Sta. 
Martha, New Grenada. For the specimen here figured I 
am indebted to M. Hd. André, joint-editor of the ‘“ Revue 
Horticole,” who procured it during his late journeyings in 
South America, and flowered it in his stove at Lacroix in 
Touraine in November of last year, and kindly sent it to 
Kew for figuring in this work. It is a near ally of M. 
tristis (Benth. in Gen. Pl. vol. il. p. 751), the Schubertia 
tristis, Seemann (Bot. Herald Voy. p. 168), in which the 
leaves are more orbicular, and the corolla is described as 
quite glabrous. The genus Macroscepis is, as Bentham 
observes, hardly distinguishable from Awraujia of Brotero, 
which was published in the Transactions of the Linnean 
Society in the same year (1818) as the volume of Hum- 
boldt’s great work in which Macroscepis appeared. Should 
the two genera be united, as no doubt they will be by the 
MAY Ist, 1885. 
