manuscripts, under the name of B. Magellanica, assumin 
. that Commerson had found it in that remote locality, where, 
indeed, he had collected largely. Half a century later 
Robert Brown, having discovered that Commerson’s speci- 
mens were collected at a place called the Port of Praslin 
(and the Isles Praslin being the Seychelles), altered the 
name of B. Magellanica to that of B. Commersonii, and for 
the following half-century the Seychelles have been the 
recognized habitat of the plant. Lastly, in 1875, Baron 
Mueller sent to Dr. Trimen specimens of a Bea from an 
island between New Britain and New Ireland, with a request 
that he would compare it with Commerson’s plant. This 
Dr. Turner did, and finding them to be identical, he took 
the pains to search for Commerson’s Port Praslin, and 
found that it was actually situated in the very island from 
which Baron Mueller’s specimens were obtained ! 
Bea hygrometrica was discovered by the now venerable 
Dr. Bunge of Dorpat in the mountains near Pekin in 1831, 
and the specimens here figured were raised from seeds sent 
to Kew in 1876 from the seme locality, by Dr. Bushell, 
physician to the British Embassy at Pekin. They flowered 
in August of the present year. 
Descr. Stemless, clothed with soft long hairs that are 
silky on the upper surface of the leaves, and woolly on the 
under. Leaves all radical, rosulate, two to three inches 
long, sessile, orbicular-ovate or obovate, or almost trapezoid, 
obtuse, narrowed and entire towards the base, strongly cre- 
nate upwards ; nerves deeply impressed above, the three 
main ones longitudinal and diverging from the base. 
Scapes very slender, hairy, naked, sparingly divided above, 
few-flowered. Flowers pedicelled, nodding, one-half to 
three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Calya very small, 
lobes triangular-lanceolate. Corolla pale blue with a yellow 
throat ; tube inflated, hemispheric; upper lip of two orbicular 
lobes, lower with three oblong obtuse lobes, each almost 
twice as long as one of the upper. Stamens two, inserted on 
the throat of the corolla, filaments very short; anthers 
broadly reniform, turned inwards and downwards, and 
meeting by their faces. Ovary hairy ;. style slender, stigma 
very small. Capsule one and a half inch long, slender, 
pubescent, much twisted to the left, terminated by the 
slender style.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, section of flower; 2 and 3, front and back view of stamens; 4, capsule :— 
all enlarged. 
