^420 Tetrandria MONOGYmAr Milrasucme» 



MITRASACME, Lahillard. 



Calyx angular, four, selilom two-cleft. Corolla deciduous, with 

 angular tube, and four- cleft equal border. Style single, bitid at the 

 base. Capsule bursting between the divisions of the style. 



1. M. capillariSf JVall. 



Stem erect, Irairy ; leaves lanceolate, hairy above, connected at the 

 base by means of a narrow ciliated membrane, the uppermost ap- 

 proximated, sub'quatern; vmhel peduncled, mostly compound ; calyx 

 half the length of the corolla, its segments villous at their apex; stig- 

 ma almost entire ; apex of the capsule exserted. 



A native of the valley of Ts'epalr/, where it blossoms in Septem- 

 ber. Specimens were communicated by the Hon. E. Gardner. 



Root fibrous. Stem erect, capillary, troin three to six inches high, 

 mostly undivided, slightly compressed. — Leaves spreading, acute, 

 ciliate, three-nerved, sessile, smooth below, four or five lines long, 

 exceeding tljeir interstices ; the uppermost two pairs so close toge- 

 ther as to appear almost verticilled. — Umbel terminal, divided into 

 three or four lays, winch are again sub-divided into several slender 

 pedicels. Two cr three lanceolate, minute, covmate bractes under 

 the primary divisions.— Calyx four cleft; its segments lanceolate, 

 acute, united at the base by a small membrane. Corolla sub-cam- 

 panulate, slightly pubescent, white, with ovate lacinise. — Stamina in- 

 closed; fl»Mers oblong, attached to the back of the filaments. — Ova- 

 rium ovate, bi-cuspidate. Style capillary, pei-sistent ; when the cap- 

 sule ripens, the division at the base extends almost up to the slightly 

 tvvo-lobed, sub-capitate stigma- — Capsule ovate, smooth, bursting at 

 the top with a roundish aperture between the divisions of the style ; 

 takes very short, scarcely equalling one-thud of the capsule, acute, 

 incurved. Seeds minute, whitish. 



Obs. This little plant comes near to M. connata, Brown, Prodr. 

 Flor. Nov. Holl. i. 454 ; it differs in the shorter limb and the ovate 

 segments of the corolla, and tlie style not being entire when the 

 flower opens. — N. W. 



