492 PIPERACE& (Wright). [ Peperomia, 
thin, pellucid, 3-nerved, without veinlets, midribs continued to apex, 
lateral nerves more slender ; petiole glabrous, pellucid ; spikes leaf- 
opposed, lax-flowered ; stigma simple; berry sessile, ovoid, acute, 
slightly sunk in the rhachis. C. DC. in DC. Prodr. xvi. i, 404, 
and in Engl. Jahrb. xix. 228. 
Eastern Rearon : Pondoland ; in woods, 650-1600 ft,, Beyrich, 99. 
Also in the Mascarene Islands, 
OrperR CXVa. MONIMIACEA5, 
(By C. H. Writ.) 
Flowers unisexual in the South African genus, in some others 
hermaphrodite. Perianth inferior, regular or irregular ; tube 
globose; limb 4- or more lobed or oblique. Disk adnate to the 
perianth-tube. Stamens indefinite, in two or more rows ; filaments 
short, usually flat, often with a gland on each side of the base ; 
anthers erect ; cells 2, distinct or confluent at the apex, dehiscing 
longitudinally or by valves. Carpels distinct, usually many, more 
or less immersed in the disk ; style long or short ; stigma terminal ; 
ovule solitary, erect or pendulous, usually anatropous. — Fruit 
indehiscent, included in the accrescent perianth-tube. Seed 
solitary ; testa membranous ; albumen fleshy or oily, 
Trees or shrubs ; leaves opposite or alternate, entire or toothed, penninerved, 
ee se a flowers axillary, racemose, cymose or fascicled ; bracts small or 
absent. 
Distris. Species about 150, widely dispersed in the warmer regions of both 
hemispheres, 
I. XYMALOS, Baill. 
Flowers diccious. Male flower: Perianth 4—6-partite ; lobes 
ovate or lanceolate. Stamens 10-15; anthers subsessile, 2-celled, 
dehiscence longitudinal. Rudiment of ovary none. Female flower : 
Perianth 3-5-lobed. Staminodes absent, or represented by a ring 
of hairs around the base of the ovary. Ovary obovoid or turbinate, 
glabrous, I-celled ; ovule solitary, pendulous, anatropous ; stigma 
sessile, discoid or subhemispherical, wider than the top of the ovary. 
Fruit fleshy, smooth, crowned by the persistent stigma. Seed 
compressed-ellipsoid, albuminous; embryo small ; cotyledons 
roundish, flat. 
Shrubs or small trees, glabrous except the inflorescence ; leaves nearly opposite, 
coriaceous, shortly petioled, minutely pellucid-punctate ; racemes solitary or 
geminate in the axils of the leaves ; bracts ovate or oblong. 
Distrizn. Species 2, in Tropical Africa, 
