especially beneath, everywhere clothed with a beautiful velvety 
nap or short soft down, glossy and of a rich green above, less 
glossy and often tinged with purple beneath. Peduncles stout, 
blood-coloured with velvety down. Peduncles about two inches 
long, from the axils of the uppermost leaves, about as long as the 
petioles, erect, velvety, bearing a dense, globose, bracteated 
umbel of flowers ; pedicels simple or again umbellate, thickened — 
upwards. Calyx very large, rich blood-colour, of five broad 
closely downy segments or sepals, cucullate, the very recurved 
_ Margins denticulate. Corolla small compared with the calyx, 
yellow, silky with copious erect hairs: the tube ventricose above 
the middle, the mouth small, of five minute nearly equal seg- 
ments, margined with red. Stamens included. Ovary silky, — 
with a large gland on one side. Style included. Stigma bifid. 
W. J. HT. 
Cuxr. The species of this genus inhabit the primeval forests 
of tropical America, and may be considered as epiphytes, growing 5 
on trees or decaying vegetable matter in humid places. They 
have soft fleshy stems, and are of a trailing subscandent habit, 
becoming loosely attached by their soft roots, which, in a moist 
atmosphere, are emitted from below the axils of the leaves. The 
present species differs in some respects from the others, being of 
an upright stiff habit, and as yet our plant has shown no symp- 
toms of producing roots from the stem. It has flowered with us 
in the warm, moist stove, potted in loose peat soil, taking care, 
during the winter, that it is not over-watered. J. S. 
Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Corolla. 3. Pistil and gland :—magnified. 
