Mr. J. Miers on the genus Cathedra. 459 



the calyx is cup-shaped, fleshy at base, the margin being sub- 

 membranaceous, ciUated, and obsoletely 6-toothed; the petals 

 are very fleshy, oblong, truncated, and compressed at base, acute 

 at summit, where they are much thickened internally, so as to 

 be almost trigonous, and where the surface is covered with close 

 short glandular reddish resinous clavate hairs ; about the middle 

 arises a tuft of long white hairs, which overshadow the summit 

 of the anthers and embrace the stigma; when open, they are erect 

 and scarcely thrown back. The stamens are one-third the length 

 of the petals, the filaments being one-sixth the length of the an- 

 thers and equal to them in breadth ; they are affixed by a small 

 point at their base to the foot of the petals, and both attached by 

 this common point to the outer margin of the cupuliform disk : 

 the anthers from their gibbous form lean forward, and are con- 

 nivent around the style ; the structure of the anthers has been 

 sufficiently described. The cupuliform disk is quite smooth, and 

 is supported on a very short stipes within the more external cup- 

 shaped calyx, to which it is equal in depth ; its margin is thin, 

 somewhat undulating about the points of insertion of the sta- 

 mens, and fleshy towards the base ; the ovarium is in the form of 

 a very depressed cone, somewhat attenuated at the base, where it 

 terminates in a short stipitate support ; below it is quite smooth, 

 but it is surmounted by a broad thick fleshy gland, slightly co- 

 nical, marked with twelve raised strise, radiating from the base of 

 the style to the margin of the overlapping crenated border, which 

 is encircled by the more elevated margin of the cupuliform disk ; 

 the rays and style are covered with grayish resinous globules or 

 papilije, like those seen on the external face of the petals. The 

 internal structure of the ovarium has been already described*. 



2. Cathedra Gardneriana, n. sp. ; ramis nodosis, subflexuosis ; 

 foliis oblongis, glaberrimis, supra subnitidis, subtus pallidio- 

 ribus, petiolo tenuiori ; floribus in axillis paucioribus. — Tejuca, 

 prope Rio de Janeiro. Gardner, no. 5380 bis. — v. s. in herb. 

 Hooker. 



This plant, referred to in the preceding page as described by 

 Mr. Bentham, is distinct from the foregoing species, but the spe- 

 cimen in Sir Wm. Hooker's herbarium is not in good condition, 

 being almost bare of leaves, only two or three of which are re- 

 maining ; these are smaller than in my plant, are not spreading 

 and deflected, are not coriaceous, and they grow black in drying ; 

 they are 2f inches long, and 1 inch broad, upon a petiole 3 lines 

 in length f. 



* This species, with ample generic details, will he shown in the ' Contri- 

 hutions to Botam ,' &c., plate 2. 



t A drawing of the ovarium and section, with its suiTOunding cupshaped 

 bracts, will be given in the same plate. 



