mous manner, so that the flowers constitute a compound 
corymb. Pedicels glabrous, often tinged with red. Flowers 
generally three together, of which, one is usually fertile, 
the other two sterile. Sterile Flowers much the largest, 
of four white petals, two opposite ones rotundate, the other 
two inner ones oblong; all spreading. Stamens yellow. 
Fertile Flowers small. Corolla of five, nearly equal, small, 
white, seldom spreading petals. Germen triangular, two 
of the angles acute, the third extending intoa large, broad, 
perfectly white wing, or lobe. At the base of the germen, 
are two small, subulate bracteas. Of the fertile flower the 
pedicel is broad and flat ; it is filiform in the sterile ones. . 
The present species of Beconra is remarkable for the 
thickness of its furrowed stems ; and for its ample, very 
glossy, bright green leaves, and the unusual length of its 
peduncles. Its nearest affinity is B. dichotoma of Jace. 
Collectanea and Icones, t. 619; an inhabitant of the 
Caraccas: but there; the capsule has two small and one 
large wing, and the leaves are neither so glossy nor so 
glabrous. 
B. longipes is an inhabitant of Mexico, and was intro- 
duced lately to this country by the Rev. J. Hunrty of 
Kimbolton, who communicated it to the Liverpool Botanic 
Garden. I am indebted to my friends, the Messrs. SHEP- 
uERDS, for a noble specimen, from a part of which the 
accompanying figure was taken. It flowered in the stove 
in the month of April, 1830. 
> 
Sy 
——————— 
Fig. 1. Flower scarcely expanded, showing the solitary wing of the Ger- 
men. 2, Section of the Germen.—Magnified. 
