Tas. 7098. 
PODOPHYLLUM PLEIANTHUM. 
Native of Formosa. 
Nat. Ord. Bersertpacex.—Tribe BERBEREA. 
Genus Poporuytium, Linn. ; (Benth, et Hook.f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 45.) 
Poporuyiium pleianthum; glaberrimum, foliis peltatis convexis orbicularibus ~ 
9-lobis lobis late ovatis acutis ciliato-denticulatis, floribus inter folia 
_ 2 opposita numerosis umbellatim confertis pendulis, sepalis lineari- 
x oblongis obtusis viridibus, petalis duplo longioribus obovato-oblongis 
luride purpureis apices versus crispatis, staminibus 6, ovario ellipsoideo, 
stylo brevi, stigmate cupulari dentato. 
P. pleianthum, Hance in Journ. Bot. vol. xxi. (1883) pp. 175 and 362. The 
-. Garden, 1889, ii. 299, f. 44.. 
Wied: 
‘ Podophyllum pleianthum is a near ally of.the North 
American Mandrake, May-apple or Duck’s-foot, P. pelta- 
tum, a plant common inthe Hastern United States, and 
introduced into cultivation in England as long ago as . 
1616. For two centuries P. peltatum was the only known 
species of the genus, until 1821 in fact, when the late 
Dr. Wallich’ discovered another in Nepal, the P. Emodi. — 
Both these species have solitary flowers, white in the © 
North American plant, pink in the Himalayan; but whereas 
in the former the flower is axillary, springing from the 
_ meeting of the two leaves, and the stamens are double the 
-number of the petals; in the latter they are extra-axillary, 
- being inserted on the petiole of the upper of the two 
leaves, and the stamens are the same in number as the © 
| petals. The discovery, therefore, of a species with 
axillary flowers and stamens and petals isomerous, as is 
the case with P. pleianthwm, was an interesting fact, 
congeners in being many-flowered and the corolla of a 
deep purple colour. yee a 
P. pleianthum was discovered in the Island of Formosa, 
n 1881, by T. Watters, Esq., H.B.M. Consul in that island, 
.who sent specimens to the late eminent Chinese botanist, 
| Dr. Hance, who published it, and whose excellent descrip- 
| Fewrvary 1st, 1990. | ; a one. 
* 
rendered all the more so from its departing from both its, _ : 
