Mr. J. Miers on the genus Margaranthus. 251 
Schlechtendal. -Its stems however are far more slender, more 
deeply angular, quite smooth, with internodes about 2 inches 
apart ; the radical leaves may probably be of greater size, but the 
largest leaves in the specimen referred to, are about 13 inch long, 
upon a very slender petiole of 3 inch, and are about 4 lines broad, 
with four or five somewhat obsolete teeth on the margin. The 
flowers are seen only in the nascent axils, while the young leaves 
have not attained the length of 4 lines ; the capillary peduncle is 
very hairy, and about 2 lines long ; the calyx is scarcely a line in 
length, cylindrical, and is densely covered, especially below the 
middle, with articulate and rigid white hairs: the corolla is 
tubular, and contracted at base to the diameter of one-third of a 
line, but as it emerges from the calyx, it swells suddenly in a 
somewhat globular form to a diameter of 2 lines, marked with 
five grooves opposite the stamens, and five intermediate saccate 
projections, which are below the five minute short teeth, that 
crown the suddenly contracted mouth of the corolla, which is here 
even narrower than the inferior portion of the tube; it is entirely 
smooth and apparently of a lurid white, the saccate lobes seeming 
of a dull violet hue ; outside it is smooth, inside somewhat hairy ; 
the stamens, nearly the length of the corolla, are wholly included, 
the filaments bemg very short, smooth, somewhat arcuate, and 
inserted into the basal contraction of the tube ; the anthers are 
four times the length of the filaments, linear, with two narrow 
cells, fixed along their whole length, upon a narrow dorsal con- 
nective which forms an extension of the filament ; the cells burst 
by a longitudinal line in front, and also by an apical pore, for 
the external valves are there reflected on each side. The ovarium 
is small, obovate, supericr, and fixed upon a somewhat two-lobed 
annular gland; the style is exserted beyond the mouth of the 
corolla, is smooth, somewhat subulate, and truncated at its apex 
by a small stigmatic pore. The matured fruit, in consequence of 
the apparently quick growth of the plant, is found only in the di- 
chotomy of the branches, where the peduncle is from 2 to 8 lines 
long: the calyx is now become greatly enlarged, having acquired 
a globular form, 4 lines in diameter, very finely reticulated, and 
contracted in the mouth, which is closed by a very small five- 
toothed orifice ; the included berry is globular, 22 lines in dia- 
meter, with a very thin membranaceous pericarp, apparently 
without pulp, and probably once filled with an aqueous juice ; it 
is two-celled, and contains about fourteen seeds, which are of a 
large size compared with the smallness of the berry; these are 
flat, thin, nearly oval, reniform; the testa is scrobiculate and 
brittle; the horny and rather translucent albumen incloses a 
somewhat spiral filiform embryo, in which the radicle (at least 
three times the length of the cotyledon of equal diameter) points 
