TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM. 
root. In favorable situations it sometimes attains four feet 
in height. The stems are about three eighths of an inch in 
diameter, simple, stout, erect, cylindrical, hollow, pubescent, 
and of a green color, inversed with soft, clammy hairs. The 
leaves are large, oblong oval, acuminate, somewhat panduri- 
form towards their base, where they become suddenly nar- 
rowed. They are mostly connate until they approach the 
fourth pair from the top; these upper ones are more attenu- 
ated at their bases and rather amplexicaul. The under sur- 
face of all the leaves is covered with a soft, dense, bluish- 
white pubescence, conspicuously apparent on the middle rib 
and nerves. On their upper surface, though the pubescence 
cannot be observed readily by the naked eye, it is discernible 
by the glass, more sparse than below. The nerves are numer- 
ous, and commonly alternate as respects their union with the 
costa. The two uppermost pairs of leaves are small and 
closely convoluted while the plant is in flower. After the 
florescence is past, they are developed to the full size of the 
others, or become rather broader at their middle, and assume 
a brownish-purple color; sometimes the whole plant may be 
of this hue, though in general it is confined to the upper 
portion. The flowers are axillary, sessile, and arranged in 
triplets round the stem, appearing whorled. The corolla is 
reddish-purple above, striated below with lake blended into 
white, and everywhere covered with a dense pubescence. It 
is tubular, curved, and widest at the top, where it is divided 
into five auriculated segments or lobes, the laciniw being . F : 
cordate and closed on each other. The lower end of the — 
tube terminates in an abrupt gibbosity, which is articulated 
with the germ. The stamens are five in number, inclosed 
within the corolla, and alternate with the lobes or lacinie. 
The pistil is somewhat longer than the stamens, and appears 
conspicuously above the corolla. Stigma oblong. The calyx 
is composed of five linear segments obscurely ciliated on 
their margins, of a dark purplish color, and half an inch long. 
The germ to which they are articulated is beneath, and gar- 
nished with a single green bract, longer and broader than the 
calyx leaves, and proceeding from its base. The berries suc- _ 
ceed to the flowers, generally in the number of six to each 
‘axil; sometimes there are but three, but occasionally nine in — 
Sieariant. plants. They are ovate, orange-colored whe ma-— 
| re three pat and contain three ony nuts © ir ‘ 
