Tan, 6893. 
BEFARIA anavea. 
Native of New Grenada. 
Nat. Ord. Ertcacrm.—Tribe RoopopENDRE®. 
Genus Berarta, Mutis. ; (Benth, et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 599.) 
Brrarta glauca; ramis foliisque glaberrimis, foliis oblongo-lanceolatis acutis 
breviter petiolatis venis obscuris supra late viridibus convexis subtus glaucis, 
racemo paniculave erecta laxe multiflora, ramis ramulis pedicellisque minute 
sparse puberulis glaberrimisve, bracteis parvis sparsis subulatis, floribus longe 
gracile pedicellatis, sepalis rotundatis ciliolatis, petalis lineari-oblongis roseis 
“ich 3-5 saturatioribus percursis, filamentis glaberrimis elongatis, antheris 
revibus. 
B. giauca, Humb. and Bonpl. Pl. Equinoct. vol. i. p. 117, t. 119; Humb. 
Bonpl. and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. vol. iii. p. 291; De Cand. Prodr. 
vol. vii. p. 731; Morren, Ann. Soc. Agric., and Bot. de Gand. vol. i. t. 7. 
The genus Befaria in habit, inflorescence, colour of 
flowers, and the elevations at which the most of the 
Species grow, represents in the Andes the Rhododendrons 
of the mountains of the Northern Hemisphere; and 
it is a noteworthy fact, that they begin in the American 
continent exactly where the true Rhododendrons find their 
Southern limit. Thus, of the latter genus, 2. punctatum, 
Andr. (Bot. Mac., tab. 2285), the most southern species 
known, which inhabits the mountains of Georgia and Caro- 
lina, also occurs ‘in the pine barrens of West Florida, where 
it finds its southern limit; and it is in the sandy soils of 
Georgia and East Florida that the most northern species 
of Befaria, namely B. racemosa, Vent., is found. 
Notwithstanding this, it is not to Rhododendron that the 
botanist looks for the nearest allies of Befaria, but to the 
comparatively inconspicuous genus Ledwm, which in 
America extends from the Arctic regions to the mountains 
of Guiana, where also Befaria occurs. Befaria is, in fact, 
‘Only distinguished from Ledwm by few other characters 
than habit and the size of the flower, and consists in 
Ledum having a five-toothed calyx, five or ten stamens, 
and an oblong five-valved capsule bursting from the base 
‘SEPT. lst, 1886. 
