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Description of several New or Bare Plants which have lately 

 Flowered in the Neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and chiefly in 

 the Boyal Botanic Garden. By Dr Graham, Professor of 

 Botany. 



Kith Dec. 1840. 

 Begonia Dregii. Link, Klot. 8$ Otto. 



JJ. Dregii, cauleseens, ramosa, glabra; radice tuberosa; foliis trans- 

 verse rhoinboidcis, duplicato-crenatis, supra argenteo-maculatis, sub- 

 tus rubris ; pedunculis bifloris ; flor. masculo perianthii segmentis 

 duobus,'.foem. segmentis sex ; capsulse alis duabus majoribus obtus- 

 angulis, una rotundata. 

 Begonia Dregii, Otto, MS. 

 Description. — Whole plant glabrous. Boot tuberous, tuber flattened. 

 Stem (in. the specimen described 6 inches high) erect, succulent, glabrous, 

 pale red faintly streaked with greenish-white oblong spots, many rising 

 from the crown of the root, branched. Leaves (lj inch long, 2 inches 

 across) petioled, oblique, transversely elliptico-rhomboid, subpeltate, 

 5-9-veined, glabrous on both sides, green, with unequal silvery spots 

 above, red below, darker on the nerves and their branches, doubly ere- 

 nate ; petioles spreading horizontally, twice as long as the leaves, having 

 a shallow channel on the upper side. Stipules large, obliquely ovate, 

 colourless, reflected on the sides, marcescent. Peduncles axillary, about 

 as long as the petioles, spreading, having at the apex two opposite brads, 

 similar to the stipules, but rather smaller, more round, and somewhat 

 unequal. Flowers (1 inch across) white, two arising between the bracts, 

 one male, the other female, pedicellate, expanding about the same time ; 

 pedicels unequal, that of the male flower the longer, and nearly equal to 

 the length of the peduncle. Male flower dipetalous, the petals subro- 

 tund, flat, slightly unequal. Stamens united by their filaments only at 

 the base ; connective short, broad, the two anther-cells forming lines 

 along its edges, and of rather paler yellow than it. Female flower 6-pe- 

 talous, petals undulate, blunt, elliptical, two opposite narrower than 

 the others, which are subequal, styles broad, fan-shaped, undulate, re- 

 volute and twisted, bearing along the terminal edge the villous stig- 

 mata, which are of darker yellow than the styles ; germen with two sub- 

 equal bluntly pointed wings, which are larger than the third more 

 rounded one. 

 Seeds of this plant were obtained from M. Otto, Berlin, in April 1840, with 

 the MS. name here adopted ; and I have since learned from M. Klotzsch 

 that seeds and dried specimens were transmitted from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to the Botanic Garden at Berlin by M. Drege. I regret 

 that I do not know at what distance from the Cape they were gathered, 

 because this is the first species of the genus which has been detected 

 on the continent of Africa, and the first any where to the southward of 

 the tropic, though several species are now known to be native without 

 the tropic in the northern hemisphere. 



Portlandia daplmoides, Grah. 



Portlandia daphnoides ; foliis ovato-ellipticis, acutiusculis, subtus con- 

 cavis ; floribus axillaribus, sexies latitudine sua, folia triplo, longiori- 

 bus ; lobis calycis lineare-subulatis, base dilatatis ; pistillo stamini- 

 busque inclusis. 

 Description. — Shrub (in specimen described 1 foot 3 inches high) erect. 

 Leaves (3 inches long, 1 { broad) crowded near the top, greatly resem- 

 bling those of Daphne laureola, coriaceous, dark green above, pale, con- 



