Tas. 6409. 
‘DIOSCOREA vrrrara. - 
Native of Brazil. 
Nat. Ord. DioscorEx, 
Genus Droscorna, Linn. ; (Kunth, Enum. vol. v. p. 325). 
Dioscorra (Epistemon) vittata; caule gracili glabro late volubili, foliis cordato- 
ovatis, cuspidatis integris glabris membranaceis petiolatis, lobis basalibus bre- 
vibus rotundatis, sinu basali late rotundato, utrinque viridibus vel sepe rubro 
vel albido-variegatis, floribus masculis laxe racemosis 1-3-nis breviter pedun- 
culatis, rachibus pedicellisque pubescentibus, bracteis minutis lanceolatis, peri- 
anthio luteo-viridulo parvo, tubo brevi campanulato segmentis lineari-lance- 
olatis, staminibus perfectis 6 in tubo insertis segmentis duplo brevioribus, 
filamentis cylindricis, antheris minutis oblongis, floribus foemineis ignotis. 
D. vittata, Hort. Bull. Cat. no. 72 (1872), p. 21, (mame only). 
This is one out of several Dioscoreas which have been 
widely grown in our hot-houses of late years for the sake of 
their variegated leaves. The earliest mention of the present 
plant which I have found is in Mr. Bull’s catalogue above 
cited. We have had it in the Palm-house at Kew for many 
years, but it never flowered till last autumn: We then found 
that it agreed with a plant belonging to the section Epis- 
temon of Grisebach, which we have had in the Herbarium for 
a long time without any specific name, gathered by Salzmann 
near Bahia; the dried specimen, like the™living one, repre- 
senting only the staminate plant. It does not agree with 
any of the species described by Grisebach in the ‘Flora Brasi- 
liensis,” nor by Kunth in his ‘‘ Enumeratio,”’ so we have kept 
the name under which it has been widely distributed in cul- 
tivation. 
Descr. Stems very slender, wide-turning, glabrous. Leaves 
cordate-ovate, entire, cuspidate, with rounded basal lobes and 
a broadly-rounded basal sinus three to five inches long, mem- 
branous in texture, glabrous, green on both sides, or flushed 
with claret-red beneath, or variegated on both sides with red 
and white, with about three main veins on each side of the 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1879. 
