SECTION IV . G. BRASILIENSE 297 



A sub-arboreous bush with very large palmate acuminate 5-lobed Descrip- 

 leaves that usually dry in herbaria into a dark brown colour ; flowers 

 and bracteoles large, the latter often maculated within, and glands on 

 the apex of the pedicels very prominent ; capsule elongated acumi- 

 nate ; seeds large, naked or nearly so, striated, conglomerated into a 

 kidney-like mass within each cell. Broad-leaved plants with naked 

 free seeds (much as in some of the states of G. barbadense), may 

 often, therefore, with difficulty be separated from G. brasiliense, 

 but the converse condition I am disposed to regard as unknown, 

 namely naked kidney seeds found in plants dissimilar from G, brasi- 

 liense in leaf, flower and fruit. I accordingly regard the combination 

 of characters mentioned as of specific value. (See Plates Nos. 49 

 and 50.) 



It may now be useful to furnish a more detailed description than the 

 above diagnostic note : A shrub 4 to 5 feet in height, but sometimes 

 becomes a small tree. Stems and twigs round below, often sbarply angled 

 above ; purple, glabrous, but roughened by gland-dots. Leaves broad ovate, 

 deeply cordate, often central lobe from base to apex 8 inches, and laterals 

 across from tip to tip 10 inches ; 5- (more rarely 3-) palmately lobed ; the 

 lobes ovate and oblong to deltoid, acuminate, spreading; the central one 

 from 4 to 8 inches long and 2 to 3 inches broad ; sinus narrow and thrown 

 up in a fold, almost quite glabrous, except on the veins below and on the very 

 young leaves, which are sometimes stellately hairy ; glands of the veins 

 irregular, usually only one present, but sometimes two to three, or entirely 

 absent ; veins punctated through the prominence of gland-dots ; stipules 

 long, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, those of the flowering shoots often 

 broad, oblique, and almost auricled. Inflorescence axillary shoots one- to 

 five-flowered, placed as a rule on the extremities of the main branches only ; 

 peduncles angled or striated, negro-papillose coloured on one side ; bracteoles 

 large, ovate, sub-acute, deeply gashed, the middle tooth often much larger 

 and longer than the others, cordate, auricled very slightly, united below, 

 blotched or variegated on the inner surface ; glands black, large, placed on 

 the apex of the peduncle and within the auricles of the bracteoles. Flowers 

 very large, thin, minutely gland-dotted ; corolla often twice the length of the 

 bracteoles, minutely puberulous externally, pale yellow with orange or scarlet 

 rarely purple spots on the claws of the petals, colour changing as the flowers 

 age to a pale rose-pink ; calyx large, cup-shaped, truncate, or irregularly 4- to 

 5 -toothed, many- veined, glabrous. Fruit oblong, acuminate, beaked, pulpy 

 in texture, when ripe embraced by the immense accrescent calyx and 

 bracteoles, 3-celled, dehiscing for little more than half its length, valves 

 erect, the margins and beak rigidly reflexed, the partition thus forming in 

 the middle a prominent curved ridge, to which the kidney masses of seeds 

 and wool are adpressed. Seeds large, well-formed, bellied, brown-black, 

 striated with darker coloured lines, naked except a tuft of rusty fuzz near 

 tbe beak, most often quite smooth or marked by twisted ridges or even corru- 

 gated on the surface, at times angled or twisted, in consequence of the severity 



