Grenada (both from the Magdalena River and Guayaquil), 
Venezuela, and the Amazons River. To these must be 
added, as Mr. Holmes informs me, Lima (in Peru). 
S. ornata was, as above stated, sent by Messrs. Williams, 
under the name of 8S. macrophylla variegata, to Kew, 
where the original plant has attained the height of 40 ft. 
The leaves of young plants, and of, these alone, are 
mottled with white, whence the varietal name. It was no 
doubt procured from Belgium, for it is 8. macrophylla 
maculata of Verschaffelt’s establishment. It was pub- 
lished as S. ornata ? by Lemaire in the Illustration Hor- 
ticole, who says of it, the plant was sent from Mexico to 
M. Verschaffelt by Ghiesbrecht, the celebrated botanical 
traveller. The note of interrogation after the name was 
intended to denote that it may not have beeu a new species, 
though unidentifiable. Though the species here figured is 
unquestionably the above S. ornata, there are two cha- 
racters attributed to it which I fail to find in the Kew 
plant, namely, large deltoid amplexicaul stipules, and the 
leaf base rarely, in a young state, cuneate. 
To conclude, I am disposed to think that S. officinalis, 
the cultivated Jamaica Sarsaparilla, Ernst’s true Sarsa- 
parilla of Caraccas, and S. ornata will prove to be as many 
different species; but that without male, and probably 
also female flowers of each, itis impossible to say more on 
this head. 
S. ornata flowered in the Palm House at Kew for the 
first time in June of last year, after having been grow- 
ing vigorously for about twenty years.—J. D. H. 
Fig. 1, Male flower ; 2 and 3, stamens :—adl enlarged. 
