Pierardia. octandria monogynia. 255 



to ten feet high, with little or no trunk, but many, sub- 

 erect branches, covered with dark-coloured, scabrous bark. 

 In their native soil they blossom in February, and ripen 

 their fruit in June. 



Leaves alternate, petioled, oblong, entire, smooth on 

 both sides ; generally about eight inches long. Petioles 

 channelled, about two inches long. Racemes from the 

 naked branches (such as are about the thickness of the 

 little finger seem to produce the greatest number) droop- 

 ing, covered nearly to the base with numerous, small, yel- 

 low flowers. Bractes lanceolate, inserted on the common 

 peduncle, three-flowered, each flower hanging on its pro- 

 per pedicel, there uniting into a common one rather 

 shorter than its bracte. Calyx, or corol, for tliere is but 

 one, four-leaved ; leaflets oval, downy, fleshy, incurv- 

 ed over the stamens, and pistil. Filaments generally 

 eight, short, incurved, inserted round the base of the 

 germ, ^n^/ters two-lobed. Germ superior, round, three 

 or more generally four-celled, with two ovula in each, at- 

 tached to the top of the cell. Berry round, size of a large 

 gooseberry, smooth, yellow, from three to four-celled. 

 Seed solitary, subovate ; invested in a copious soft, 

 white, subacid, edible aril. Integument reddish, firm, 

 pretty thick. Perisperm conform to the seed, cartila- 

 ginous. Embryo nearly as broad and long as the peris- 

 perm, inverse. Cotyledons oval, three-nerved. Radicle 

 oval, superior. 



Note. This new genus, for so it seems to me, I have 

 named after Francis Pierard, Esq. one of the Honourable 

 East India Company's Civil Servants. His abilities as a 

 Botanist, in discovering various new plants, with which 

 he has enriched the Honourable Company's Botanic gar- 

 den, claims for him this mark of distinction. 



