Tas. 6674, 
PLEUROPETALUM COSTARICENSE. 
Native of Central America. 
Nat. Ord. AMARANTHACEZ.—Tribe CELOSIEZ. 
Genus PrevrorgTaLum, Hook. f.; (Benth. et Hook.f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 157.) 
PLEUROPETALUM costaricense; glaberrimum, erectum, foliis alternis petiolatis 
ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis integerrimis v, marginibus subundulatis, paniculis 
terminalibus et in axillis supremis ramosis multifloris, floribus parvis confertis 
breviter pedicellatis bracteatis et 2-bracteolatis, perianthii rubri segmentis 5 
ellipticis concavis obtusis, staminibus 5-8 filamentis perianthio subequilongis 
antheris parvis, ovario ovoideo-globoso, stigmatibus 3  breviter linearibus 
obtusis, baccis pisiformibus globosis rubris polyspermis. 
P. costaricense, H. Wendl. MSS.; Hemsil. in Biol. Centr. Amer. vol. iii. p. 12 
(? excl, Syn.). 
A very handsome half-shrubby plant when in fruit, well 
adapted for pot-culture in a moderately warm house, where 
it retains its brilliant berries for several months. It is a 
native of Central America and Mexico, and if, as explained 
below, it is the same with Melanocarpum Sprucei, its area 
of distribution extends to Equador in South America. It 
was sent to Kew by Dr. Wendland, the learned Director of 
the Imperial Botanical Garden of Herrenhausen, Hanover, 
under the abovename. The specimen here figured flowers 
in the Palm House of the Royal Gardens in the autumn 
months, and ripens its fruit in winter. 
The genus to which this plant belongs is somewhat 
doubtful. Plewropetalum was founded by me in 1846, on a 
single very imperfect specimen of a shrub brought by the 
late Mr. Darwin from the Galapago Islands, and published 
in the * London Journal of Botany” (vol. v. p. 108, t. 2), 
and in the Linnean Transactions (vol. xx. p. 221); it had 
eight stamens, with the filaments united below the middle 
into a membranous cup, and four stigmata. Regarding 
the bracteoles (which are connate) as sepals, and the 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1883, 
