566 Britton : Studies of West Indian plants 



Illustration : Plumier, PI. Amer. ed. Burmann, //. igj. 



Known only from Plumier's description and illustration ; it 

 may belong to the genus Harrisia, — although the long-exserted 

 style seems to preclude it. 



lo? Cereus erectus Karw.; Pfeiff. Enum. 95. 1837. 



Type locality : Mexico. 



Referred in synonymy by Schumann to Cerctts repanihis, that is 

 to say, presumably a Harrisia. Known only from the description. 



Cei'i'us repandiis L., originally from Curasao, is, from the 

 description, presumably a Cephalocfrcus. 



8. POTOMORPHE PELTATA (L.) MIQ. 



PoTOMORPHE PELTATA (L.) Miq. Comm. Phyt. ^y. 1838. 



Piper peltatiuii L. Sp. PI. 30. 1753. 



Piper ujiibellatum L. Sp. PI. 30. 1753. 



Potoinorphe umbellata Miq. Comm. Phyt. 31. 1838. 



Field observations in Jamaica demonstrate that the two supposed 

 species of Potoinorplie are not distinct. The difference of peltate 

 and non-peltate leaves depended upon by Linnaeus and most sub- 

 sequent authors who have had occasion to describe these plants, 

 including M. Casimir de Candolle (in Urban, Symb. Ant. 3 : 208 

 -211), is worthless, because individual plants bear both kinds of 

 leaves. I had long suspected this to be the case, and while discussing 

 the matter with Mr. William Harris on the road from Bath to Cuna 

 Cuna Gap last September, where specimens of both supposed species 

 were abundant, he almost immediately detected a plant which bore 

 peltate leaves at its upper nodes and non-peltate leaves at the lower 

 ones, and we found a plenty of such specimens afterwards {Britton 

 3513). The relative number of spikes, which also has been supposed 

 to differentiate the species, I had previously found to be quite incon- 

 stant, and the character of pubescence used in the descriptions by 

 M. de Candolle is also inconstant, as evidenced by his proposing a 

 hairy variety of P. pcltata {loc. cit. 210, as Piper pcltatuvi hirtcl- 

 lujH C. DC). 



M. de Candolle includes the species in the genus Piper, and 

 describes them as shrubs up to 4 meters high. As a matter of 

 fact, the plant is not properly a shrub, its stems being soft, not 



