Tab. 6934. 



ARISTOLOCHIA eidicula. 



Native of Brazil. 



Nat. Ord. Abistolochie^:. 

 Genus ABlSTOLOCHrA, Linn.; (Benth. et HooJc.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 123.) 



Abistolochia (Gymnolobus) ridicula ; scandens, suffruticosa, caule gracili petiolis 

 pedunculis perianthioque extus pilis elongati8 patentibus hispidissimis, foliis 

 petiolatis membranaceis reniformi-rotundatis basi cordatis quintuplinerviis 

 supra laxe setulosis subtus toraentellis reticulars, nervis gracilibus, pedunculis 

 axillaribus 1-floris, ovario gracillimo, perianthii flavi brunneo-irrorati utriculo 

 oblongo inflato, tubo curvo requilongo cylindraceo, limbi ore rotundato, lobis 

 2 posticis lineari-oblongis deorsum spectantibus glandulis longe stipitatis 

 submarginalibus ornatis, marginibus recurvis, fauce pilis inflexis farcta, antberis 

 G linearibus lobis columnar oppositis, stigmatibus brevibus obtusis. 



A. ridicula, N. E. Brown Vn, Gard. Chron. vol. xxvi. (1886), p. 360, fig. 73. 



This most singular-looking plant was introduced from 

 the Brazils by Mr. Bull, and is well figured and described 

 by Mr. Brown in the " Gardener's Chronicle " referred to 

 above. It belongs to a large South American section of the 

 genus, of which 105 species are described by Duchartre in 

 De Candolle's Prodromus, and to a hexandrous division of 

 it, to which Klotzsch gave the generic name of Howardia. 

 To the same division belong, of species figured in this 

 work, A. macroura, Gomez (A. cdudata, Booth., Tab. 3769), 

 A. anguicida, Lin. (Tab. 4361), and others ; but none of 

 them have the grotesque disposition of the lobes of the 

 perianth that has suggested to Mr. Brown the apt trivial 

 name of A. ridicula. Its nearest ally, and it is a very 

 near one, is, as he indicates, A. eriantha. Mart, and Zucc. 

 (Nov. Gen. et Sp. vol. i. p. 78, t. 53), a widely distributed 

 Brazilian species, identical in foliage and size and general 

 form of flower, and differing chiefly in the spathulate tips 

 of the lobes of the corolla, to which the stipitate glands 

 appear to be confined. There is also a different dis- 

 position of the corolla-lobes, which spread forward hori- 

 zontally in A. eriantha, but backwards and downwards in 



MAY 1st, 1887. 



\ 



