Tas. 6777, 
PENTAPTERYGIUM serpens. 
Native of the Eastern Himalaya. 
Nat. Ord. VaccinracEx.—Tribe THIBAUDIER. 
Genus Pentarreryaium, Klotzsch ; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 572.) 
PeNTAPTERYGIUM serpens; caudice tuberoso, ramis pendulis pedicellisque glandu- 
loso-setosis, foliis parvis bifariis subsessilibus ovatis lanceolatis oblongisve 
acutis apices versus serratis, basi rotundatis v. acutis, floribus solitariis pendulis 
pedicellatis, calycis pentapteri dentibus ovato-lanceolatis demum acutis, corolla 
tubulosa 5-gona pilosa rubra dentibus recurvis, antheris dorso ecalearatis, baccis 
pentapteris, 
P. serpens, Klotzsch in Linnea, vol. xxiv. p. 47; Clarke in Fl. Brit. Ind. vol. iii. 
p. 449. 
Vaccin1UM serpens, Wight Illustr. t. 141 D, fig. 2, et Ic. Pl. Ind. Or. t. 1183 ; 
Hook. f. Lil. Pl. Himal. t. 15 B. 
Farpavvia myrtifolia, Griff. Notul. vol. iv. p. 301, and Te. Plant. Asiat. t. 510. 
This is one of the many species of Indian Whortle-berries 
that most often affect an epiphytic habit; its great tuberous 
rootstock, sometimes two feet long, and several inches in 
diameter, nestling amongst the mosses and Hepatice of 
the limbs of the forest trees. In more open ground I have 
found it growing on moist rocks, and my impression is, that 
it is the favourable conditions of light and air to be found 
amongst the higher branches of the dark forests that 
account for these and several other species of Vaccinie 
and Hricee being comparatively rare on the ground, and 
common at heights of sixty feet and more above it. Other 
conspicuous examples are to be found amongst the Rhodo- 
dendrons, as R. Dalhousie, camellieflorum, pendulum, and 
Edgeworthii. These, however, are true Hricee, which do 
not form the tuberous stocks, as do certain species of 
Vaccinium and Pentapterygium. . 
P. serpens is a native of the humid forests of Sikkim and 
Bhotan, where it inhabits both the tropical and temperate 
regions, descending to 3000 feet, and ascending to 8000. 
SEPTEMBER lst, 1884, 
