doubt right in this identification, but Hernandez's com- 

 parison of the habits of the plant to the musk-rose is 

 inexplicable. At the Royal Gardens, Kew, P. mexicanus 

 is trained on the south wall of the Orchid House, where 

 it flowers freely annually in June, but it is not hardy. 



Descr. — A more or less sparsely, hispidulous, or nearly 

 glabrous shrub, with spreading or drooping branches, 

 covered with pale, red-brown bark. Leaves one to two 

 and a half inches long, shortly petioled, ovate, acuminate, 

 3-nerved, sparingly serrate or toothed, bright green above, 

 pale beneath ; petiole one-tenth to one-sixth of an inch 

 long. Flowers solitary, subsessile on the ends of the 

 branchlets, nearly two inches in diameter, strongly sweet- 

 smelling, pedicel very stout. Calyx-tube hairy, turbinate, 

 segments broadly ovate, acuminate, one half to two-thirds 

 of an inch long, entire, or sparingly toothed. Petals 

 orbicular, white, suffused with yellow. Stamens very 

 numerous, filaments glabrous. Style columnar, quadrifid, 

 stigmas oblong, obtuse. — J. D. H. 



Fig. 1 and 2, stamens ; 3, section through ovary : — All enlarged. 



