Tas. 8099. 
BLAKEA GRACILIS, 
Costa Rica. 
Metastomaces#. '‘l'ribe Buakem. 
Brakes, Linn.; Benth, et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 770. 
Blakea gracilis, Hemsi. Diag. Plant. Nov, p.13 et Biol. Cent. Amer. Bot. 
vol. 1, p. 433, t. 23; Cogn. in DC. Monogr. vol. vii. p. 1073; B. spruceane, 
Cogn., proxima, sed glabra, bracteis interioribus quam exterioribus multo 
minoribus, petalis apice rotundatis vel retusis differt. 
Frutex 9-13 ped. aitus vel interdum arbor parva, valde ramosus, glaber, 
ramulis gracilibus teretibus patentibus. Folia subcoriacea, 5-nervia, 
obovatc-elliptica vel elliptica, 24-4 poll. longa, 14-14 poll. lata, integer- 
_ Yima, abrupte breviterque acuminata, basi cuneata, venis lateralibus 
numerosissimis ; petioli 5-10 lin. longi. Fores axillares, solitarii vel rare 
geminati, circiter 1} poll. diam., 4-bracteati; pedunculi, 3-2 poll. longi, 
graciles; bractes trinervix, membranacex, 2 exteriores multo majores, 
fere pollicares, foliis simillime, interiores obovato-spathulate. Calycis 
tubus campanulatus, circiter } poll. longus; limbus membranaceus, 
truncatus vel obscure 6-lobatus. Petala 6, albido-rosea, oblique et late 
obovata, apice rotundata vel retusa. Stamina 12, wqualia; anthers 
magne, oblong, filamentis crassis subduplo longiores. Stylus elongatus, . 
stigmate parvo. Bacca late ovoideo-urceolaris, primum 12-costata, fere 
5 lin, diam. 
Cogniaux describes thirty-one species of Blakea in his 
Monograph of the Melastomacee. Of these, nine are 
native of Peru, eight of the Republic of Colombia, four of 
Costa Rica, four of Venezuela, two of Brazil, one of 
Guatemala, one of Ecuador, and two of the West Indies, 
one of which is confined to Jamaica and the other to 
several of the Windward Islands. B. guianensis, Baillon, 
is undescribed and unlocalized. 
Blakea gracilis was first described from material collected 
by Endres for Messrs. James Veitch & Sons. It has 
since been found in several localities in Costa Rica, grow- 
ing in forests at elevations up to 5,570 feet. The Kew 
plant, from which the accompanying drawing was made, 
was purchased from Messrs. Lemoine & Sons, of Nancy, 
in 1904, and flowered in a greenhouse in February of the 
current year. At present it is scarcely more than a foot 
high, but owing to the spreading habit of its branches it is 
as much as two and a half feet across. Some of the leaves 
have one or two small pouches near the midrib at the 
Octopser Ist, 1906. 
