with imperfect anthers without pollen, and a well-formed 
trigonous ovary bearing three short stigmas fimbriate at the 
apex. Besides the form figured here, a similar one in habit 
and foliage is grown at Kew, with the flowers all male, 
rose-coloured, much more loosely racemose, and with a 
tendency in the racemes to throw out very short lateral 
branches: this plant I suspect to be the male of P. com- 
pactum. 
The only specimen of P. compactum which I have found 
in the Kew Herbarium were fruiting ones collected on the 
mountain Fusiyama, received from Sir RB. Alcock, K.C.B., 
in 1860, from whom, in all probability, the seeds also were 
procured ; like all its allies, it flowers very late in the season, 
the specimen figured being in blossom almost till the end 
of September. 
Duscr. Stems prostrate, one to two feet long, with 
ascending and suberect branches as high, deeply grooved, 
dark red or red-brown, puberulous towards the tips, aS are 
the petioles and racemes. Leaves one and a half to two 
inches long and broad, rigid, deltoid or very broadly ovate, 
base broadly truncate or subcordate with a very open sinus, 
cuspidate, margins waved, uppermost sometimes cuneate at 
the base; petiole a quarter to half an inch long, stout, red ; 
ochrea very short, deciduous. Racemes axillary and terminal, 
two to three inches long, strict, erect, solitary or several 
together; rachis slender with close-set short obtuse many- 
flowered bracts. Male flowers white, on slender pedicels ; 
perianth one-tenth of an inch long, subglobose ; fruiting 
perianth one-third of an inch long, cuneate, truncate ; three 
outer segments with a broad membranous longitudinal dorsal 
wing produced downwards on the pedicel. Stamens eight, 
impertect, filaments half as long as the perianth; anthers 
small, without pollen. Ovary ellipsoid, trigonous; stigmas 
three, short, truncate, tips fimbriate.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, fruiting perianth of female flower; 2, the same laid open, showing the 
stamens and ovary, both enlarged ; 3, fruiting raceme of the natural size. 
