162 DIANDRIA TRIGYNIA, Piper. 
from each joint, which scarcely rise four inches above the 
surface on which the plant grows. Stems thread-like, 
pubescent, with four or five furrows; branches once or twice 
sub-divided into small opposite branchlets. Leaves gener- 
ally quatern, rarely tern, four or five lines in length, obtuse, 
cuneate at the base, shining. and somewhat concave above, 
with copious short hairs below, slightly ciliated, without 
veins or ribs, and losing even the three pale-coloured nerves. 
when dry ; the lowest verticils many times, the others two or 
three times, shorter than the interstices between the joints. 
Leaves of the young shoots linear-oblong, measuring some- 
times an inch inlength, _ Petioles very short, villous, erect, 
with a gland-like body in their axills, villous. Spike terminal, 
very slender, from an inch to an inch and a half long, round, 
villous, excavated on its surface with innumerable small pores 
in which the flowers are lodged, on a ep about half its 
length. 
Obs. All the parts of this elegant little epecioa vies. a faint 
pungent taste. I have not been able hitherto to examine its 
organs of fructification in a satisfactory manner, 
