Tas. 5106. 
DIPTERACANTHUS canvescens. 
Subglabrous Dypteracanthus. 
Nat. Ord. ACANTHACE®.—D1pYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA. 
Gen. Char. (Vide supra, TaB. 4494.) 
Drpreracantuus calvescens ; caule suffruticoso basi repente glabro caudicante, 
juvenili apice hirsuto, foliis elliptico-oblongis acuminatis basi acutis brevi- 
petiolatis repandis, juvenilibus supra undique subtus ad costas hirsutis, 
adultis glabrescentibus, floribus infra terminali-axillaribus geminis ternisve 
subsessilibus, bracteolis inferioribus ovatis obtuse cuspidatis, superioribus 
oblongo-lanceolatis obtusis calyce longioribus hirsutis, corolla tubo longo 
fauce obconico tubum subeequante. Nees. 
Dirreracanruus calvescens. Nees, in Endl. et Mart. Fl. Brasil. fase. 7. p. 32. 
De Cand. Prodr. v. 11. p. 128. 
If Dipteracanthus calvescens can lay no claim to floral beauty, 
nothing to be compared with that of D. spectabilis (see our 
Tab. 4494), it is nevertheless worthy of cultivati mn, from the fact 
of its blossoming, and that freely, in the winter 
months, in our 
stove; and it would no doubt succeed well in a warm green- 
house. It is a native of Rio Janeiro, where it has been gathered 
by Martius, Riedel, Schott, Sellow, and Gardner. N otwith- 
Standing some discrepancies, our plant here figured, which we 
received from Pernambuco through Mr. de Mornay. , 18 clearly 
the same as Nees’s D. calvescens. We have native pepe 
both from Riedel and Gardner (n. 805) in our herbarium. 
drawing was made in December, 1858. 
Dzscr. A rather straggling, small shrub, or undershru ‘| or 
the young branches are green and herbaceous, and more . se 
pubescent. Stem whitish, especially below, subterete, swollen a 
the setting-on of the branches or leaves. Leaves opposite, one 
and a half to two inches long, oblong or ovato-lanceolate, short- 
petioled, gradually but obtusely acuminate, penniveined, the 
margin repando-subdentate, teeth very blunt, pale beneath, and 
plant geminate, nearly ses- 
sometimes purplish. FZowers in our 
MARCH Ist, 1859. 
