20. R. MACROPHYLLUS. 151 



very long cuneate-obovate, acuminate or subcuspidate, usu- 

 ally more or less cordate at the base ; midribs and petioles 

 with slender hooked prickles beneath. 



Flower'uKj shoot from brown silky scales, angular, hairy, 

 nearly without setse or aciculi. Prickles from a long com- 

 j)ressed base, slender, declining, or rather strong. Leaves 

 mostly ternate. Leaflets varying like those of the stem, 

 j)ilose above, paler and hairy on the veins beneath, dentate- 

 serrate or sul^lobute-dentate towards their tip ; basal usually 

 unequal-sided; uppermost floral leaves sometimes simple, 

 three-lobed, or ternate, with the terminal leaflet wedge- 

 shaped at the base and very shortly stalked. Panicle short, 

 with two or three axillary subracemose ascending branches 

 which fall short of the leaves ; rachis and peduncles hairy, 

 felted, with many yellow subsessile glands, and a few aciculi 

 and short pur|)le setse. Sepals ovate-attenuate, with a slen- 

 der leaflike or flat and linear point, hairy, felted, very 

 slightly setose, loosely reflexed from the fruit. Petals oblong, 

 white. Stamens white. Styles cream-coloured. Nuts ovate; 

 inner edge straight. 



P. macrophyllus, even as restricted in the Puhi Ger- 

 manici, is a very variable plant. The terminal leaflet is 

 sometimes nearly circular, cuspidate, and scarcely at all 

 cordate at the base ; but a series of plants may be found 

 connecting that form of leaf with one which is cordate- 

 acuminate or cordate-obovate-acuminate. In all of them 

 the dentition is very nearly simple and regular. The stems 

 of E. macrophyllus are often furnished with a few aciculi 

 and set£e, which are usually short and have thick bases; 

 but very rarely a plant cleai'ly belonging to P. 7nacrophyllus 

 is found to have almost as great an abundance of those 

 minute arras as the species of the Section Padula;. They 

 })rove to us that our sections are not so clearly defined in 



