Tas. 6018. 
BRACHYOTUM CONFERTUM. 
Native of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. 
Nat. Ord. MreLAsToMACEm.—Tribe OsBECKIES. 
Genus, Bracurotum, Triana ; (Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Pl., vol. i. p. 743.) 
Bracnyorum confertum ; frutex erectus, ramossissimus, setoso-hirtulus, foliis 
parvis petiolatis oblongis ovatisve acutis v. obtusis marginibus revolutis 
utrinque subappresse setulosis 3-nerviis, floribus pollicaribus termi- 
nalibus solitariis breviter pedicellatis pendulis basi 6-bracteatis, bracteis 
2 foliaceis patentibus ceteris surborbiculatis cucullatis appressis, calycis 
segmentis late ovatis obtusis ovarioque sericeo-pilosis, corolla tubuloso- 
campanulata, petalis saturate purpureis oblique late obcordatis ciliofatis, 
antheris recurvis basi breviter appendiculatis, ovario libero, capsula apice 
obtuse 5-dentata. 
Bracuyotum confertum, Naud. in Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxviii. p. 49. 
CHETOGASTRA conferta, DC. Prodr., vol. iii. p. 185; Naud. in Ann. Se. Nat. 
Ser. 3, vol. xiv. p. 186; Jameson Synops. Plant. Equit., vol. i. p. 228. 
RuEX1A conferta; Bonpl. Rhex., t. 20. 
A very singular and beautiful Melastomaceous shrub, 
abundant on the Andes of Ecuador and Peru, where it must 
form a very conspicuous and attractive feature in the land- - 
Scape. It was introduced by our friend Professor Jameson, 
late of Quito, who transmitted seeds from hills near Cuenca 
to Isaac Anderson Henry, Esq., of Trinity, Edinburgh, 
who raised the plant and flowered it profusely in a green- 
house, when eighteen inches high, in November last. We 
have herbarium specimens gathered in the Chachapoyas 
province of Peru by Matthews, and at Loja and Cuenca, 
both in Ecuador, by Seemann and Jameson. It was dis- 
covered by Humboldt and Bonpland in the beginning of the 
century. The figure in Bonpland’s “ Melastomacee” is most 
unsatisfactory, and evidently coloured from a dried specimen 
or description. 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1873. 
