Tas. 7457. 
BEGONIA vUmMBRACULIFERA. 
Native of Brazil. 
. Nat. Ord. BrGONIACER. 
Genus Brgonta, Linn.; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. i. p. 841.) 
Brecontsa wmbraculifera; caulibus elatis robustis indivis, foliis apicem 
versus caulis alternis distichis longe petiolatis reniformibus y. orbicu-* 
laribus et peltatis denticulatis, stipulis magnis ovatis caducis, cymis 
supra-alaribus dichotomo-multifidis, pedunculis valde elongatis basi inter- 
nodio confluentibus, floribus polygamo-monoicis; /. masc. sepalis 2 orbicula- 
ribus, andraecio compresso, antheris filamentis liberis longioribus; fl. foem. 
sepalis 5 ovatis 2 extimis majoribus, ovario 3-loculari, placentis integris, 
stylis 3 brevibus liberis, stigmatibus reniformi-2-lobis undique papillosis, 
capsula equaliter 3-alata; jl. hermaph. perianthio stylis stigmatibusque 
fi. fem., similibus staminibus basi v. superficie ovarii 2-5-locularis sine 
ordine insertis. 
A very remarkable plant in habit, and the second only © 
(in so far as is known to me) of the vast genus to which 
it belongs, in which hermaphrodite flowers have been 
observed. The other is B. frigida, A.DC.* (Tab. 5760), 
also a native of Brazil, in which the ovary of the fem. fl. is 
inferior, and 3—4 quetrous, but that of the hermaphrodite 
fl. consists of 3-4 free superior carpels, surrounded by a 
few hypogynous stamens. 
I have sought in vain amongst the sections of the genus 
established by A. De Candolle in the Prodromus, for one 
under which this singular plant should be placed; and I 
have compared it, also in vain, with all the drawings and 
descriptions to which I have access, in search of any 
species of similar habit, namely, as having a_ perfectly 
simple, stout, erect stem, with few distant distichous reni- 
form orbicular peltate fleshy leaves, and very long- 
peduncled supra-axillary cymes, the peduncle of which is 
confluent at the base with the internode above it. Refer- 
ring to the key to De Candolle’s sections of the genus 
which I have given in “The Genera Plantarum,” it falls 
into the last group of American ones, those with entire 
placentas and style-arms papillose all over, and amongst 
* For observations on B. frigida see Gard. Chron. 1860, pp. 146 and Ws = 
1861, p. 1092, and Masters, Vegetable Teratology, pp. 199, 303. 
Fesruary lst, 1896, 
