Tab. 4. 
Vandesiane. 
PILEA MUSCOSA. 
Nat. Orv. Urticeee, Juss. Linn. Syst. Monececia Tetrandria. 
PILEA. Flores monoici. ¢. Calyx 4-partitus membranaceus. Stamina 4 elastice dissilientia. 9 Calyx 3-phyllus 
sepalo altero gibboso carnoso. Stigma sessile fimbriatum. Achenium deciduum. Herbe v. Suffrutices, demisse 
ae . ‘ “sum T sli ! es axillares ; masculi pedun- 
(Indie occidentalis). Folia glabra, carnosa, transversim rugosa, exstipulata. Flores p 
culati, subsolitarn ; foeminer capitati, involucrati, persistentes. 
Sahin eee 
Pilea, caulibus herbaceis ceespitosis, capitulis solitariis, foliis obovatis glaberrimis. .¥. 
Parietaria microphylla. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1492. 
Urtica microphylla. Swarts Fl. Ind. oc. 1. 3805. Willd. Sp. Pl. 4. 359. 
Descr. Herbula depressa, ramosa, glaberrima, cespitosa, ad nodos radicans, caulis internodiis tumidiusculis. Folia carnosa, 
oblonga, ovata v. obovata, sparsa ; minora sessilia, majora petiolata, transversim rugosa, supra et subtis feré concolora. Flores 
diclines, monoici; d¢  subsolitarii, erecti, pedunczlo apice articulato. Calyx semidiaphanus, rubescens, deciduus, 4-partitus, laci- 
niis obtusis, reflexis. Stamina 4, elasticé dissilientia. Anthera ovate. ¢ Capitulus 6—10-florus, floribus masculis oppositus, 
pedicellatus, deflexus. Involucrum polyphyllum, foliolis parvis, ovatis, acutis, diaphanis. Flores pedicellati, pedicellis inarti- 
culatis. Calyx 3-phyllus : sepala inequalia, vasculosa: duo exteriora diaphana, ovata, obtusa; interius majus, crassum, gibbo- 
sum, quasi cucullatum, (undé nomen,) margine membranaceo colorato; ut et apices omnium. Ovarium ovatum, tuberculatum, 
uniloculare. Ovulum solitarium, pendulum, extremitate alteré ovario chordula affixum. Stigma sessile, fimbriatum. Achenium 
calyce inclusum, deciduum, ovatum, pulicare, obscuré tuberculatum. Pericarpium fragile. Semen pendulum. Embryo rectus, 
in axi albuminis carnosi, parci. Cotyledones oblongi, crassi, radiculd conicd supera pauld longiores. 
TT SIN TCR 
This is one of the many plants whose beauties are only detected by the eye of the curious observer ; but which, when 
scrutinized with the aid of a microscope, offer features, modest indeed, but not less interesting than those of their more 
gaudy neighbours. We first observed it in the elegant hothouse of the Comte de Vandes at Bayswater, forming a 
little tuft of a lively and agreeable green, not very unlike young plants of Thehgonum Cynocrambe, for which we have 
seen it mistaken. Dr. Swartz found it growing in abundance in moist places and on old walls in the West Indies, 
and ascertained it to be the Parietaria microphylla of Linneus. Its characters, however, appearing to resemble 
those of Urtica more than of Parietaria, he transferred it from the latter to the former genus, and it st 
Flora Indie occidentalis under the name of Urtica microphylla. 
ands in his 
When difference of opinion arises between two great men respecting the genus to which a particular plant is to 
be referred, it usually happens that the subject of dispute belongs to neither; and such is the case with the plant 
Its whole habit is totally dissimilar to that of Urtica, and it has not much greater resemblance to Parie- 
taria. Its smooth fleshy leaves, entirely destitute of the pungent hairs of Urtica, remarkable for the transverse plaits 
of their surface, which become very conspicuous in the dried specimen, are quite unlike any thing in either genus. 
The fleshy, gibbous, inner segment of the female flower, added to some other peculiarities of structure, has therefore 
induced us to propose it as the type of a new genus, to which U. Herniartoides and 
with a fourth species brought from the West Indies by 
before us. 
Trianthemoides may be referred, 
apes Von Rohr, and now in the Banksian herbarium. 
The Herniaria lucida aquatica of Sloane, which is usually cited to this plant, seems 
Pilea Trianthemoides. 
The second point of attachment of the Ovulum, which is su 
pyle, is in this plant at that end of the Ovulum which is furth 
lidates an observation first made, we believe, by M. August 
wards the Micropyle, its 
to us decidedly to belong to 
pposed to be indicated in the ripe seed by the Micro~- 
est from the Hilum. This is a curious fact ; and inva- 
e St. Hilaire, that as the Radicle is always turned to- 
future direction may be determined by the second point of attachment of the Ovulum. 
EXPLANATION or THE Phare, 
A. A small portion of the plant, showing the relative situation of th 
2. The same burst open by the elastic Filaments. 3. Head of female flowe 
5. Ovarium. 6. The same divided vertically, 
e male and female flowers. 1. Male flower closed. 
rs. 4. Female flower separate, without the Ovarium. 
entof the Ovulum. 7, Stigma. 8, Achenium. 9. The 
10. Embryo separate. 
| exhibiting the double attachm 
same divided vertically, showing the situation of the Embryo. 
