AEQUATORIALES—CONTINUAE 143 
the base, and a second pair at about the middle of the joint, tubular. 
Leaves round-ovate, very obtuse, 3-5x6-8 em., rather abruptly petioled 
for some 10-15 mm. Spikes mostly solitary, rather long (60 mm.), with 
half a dozen oblong joints some 30- to 60-flowered in 6 series when stam- 
inate: peduncle scarcely 5 mm. long: scale pairs forming rather slender 
truneate cups. Fruit?.—Plate 212. 
Venezuelan region.—The type from Venezuela. 
Specimens examined:—VENEZUELA. Tovar (Karsten, 5,—the type). 
Very like the preceding except in its internodes, and possibly repre- 
senting its staminate form. 
F. CONTINUAE. 
Cataphyls on all joints, even when the stem is percurrent. Always 
glabrous and with foliage leaves. Throughout the range of the Aequa- 
toriales. 
Stem always or prevailingly pereurrent. PERCURRENTES. 
Stem eymose or diehotomous, rarely if ever pereurrent. DICHOTOMAE. 
ІП. PERCURRENTES. 
Branches percurrent, even when frequently forked. 
Cataphyls bearing flower-spikes in their axils.* CRASSIFOLIAE. 
Cataphyls not subtending spikes. : 
Leaves penninerved. 
Thick, dull, and opaque. PIPEROIDES. 
Chartaceous, glossy and veiny. P. racemosum. 
Leaves basinerved. : į 
Large, fleshy, dimidiate. P. obliquum. 
Moderate in size and thickness. 
Equally nerved on both sides. 
Cataphyls 1 pair. GARDNERIANAE. 
Cataphyls 2 or 3 pairs. : 
Flowers in 2 ranks. P. Jenmani. 
Flowers in 6 ranks. P. Fendlerianum. 
Venulose above, heavy-nerved beneath. 
Spikes many-flowered. FLAVENTES. 
Spikes slender, few-flowered. P. lariflorum. 
Very narrow, linear. P. linearifolium. 
*For comparable cases in other groups see P. craspedophyllum, and, as exceptions, 
P. Eagersi, Р. Glaziovii and Р. Wattii. Flower-scars have been observed in the axils 
of eataphyls in P. longipetiolatum. 
