286 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



which is secreted a limpid fluid. When the corolla falls away, 

 the involucral leaves close firmly over the calyx, and do not open 

 out, nor does the contained fluid dry up, until the globose roseate 

 berry, the size of a pea, is quite ripe. Another singular character 

 is the syngenesious anthers, with a minute pore at the apex of 

 each cell, through which not a grain of pollen ever escapes, as I 

 satisfied myself by repeated observation ; fertilisation being effected 

 through the agency of minute beetles, which abound in the flowers, 

 and eat away the inner edge of the anther cells, probably part of 

 the pollen also. . . . 



The remaining Melastomace^e offer nothing noticeable, except 

 the scarcity of Miconia, the South American genus most abundant 

 in species and individuals, and occurring from the plain to the 

 limits of true forest on the hills. I gathered but one species, 

 which I refer doubtfully to Miconia. 



Myrtaace, i. Two or three Myrcite, which are rather scarce. 

 A fine Eugenia, called "Arrayan " (but different from the Arrayan 

 of Quito), with very hard, durable wood, and exfoliating bark, 

 grows to a tree of 60 feet or more. Two Psidia are frequent ; 

 the one (on the beaches by the Rio San Antonio) seems the 

 common Guayaba of the temperate region ; the other is a timber 

 tree called Guayaba del Monte, which, although of very slow 

 growth, ultimately reaches the dimensions of the Arrayan, and 

 yields equally valuable timber. 



BarriiigtoniaceiE. A Grias, with the characteristic coma of 

 large elongato -lanceolate leaves, seems to reach its upper limit 

 at about 3500 feet. . . . 



Loasacece, i. A weak branching herb with small white flowers, 

 probably an Ancyrostemon. There grows also in the cane-fields 

 a virulently stinging Loasa, which is too common a weed on the 

 eastern side, at about 5000 feet. This order, quite absent from 

 the Amazonian plain, accompanies woody vegetation from about 

 1200 feet up to 11,000 feet at the least, and many of the species 

 are climbers. 



UmbeUifene, 4. Whereof three are Hydrocotyles, one of them 

 departing from the habit usual to the South American species, 

 in putting forth erect stems of 3 to 12 inches from a trailing 

 rhizome. There is also a fourth Hydrocotyle (H.pusilla, A. Rich.), 

 distinguished by its minute leaves and scarlet fruit, which I 

 gathered at the same elevation on the Andes of Maynas. I have 

 nowhere seen such abundance of Hydrocotyles in the forest as 

 at Limon, where they constitute a notable proportion of the 

 ground vegetation. In moist, open situations, on the higher 

 grounds, they are common enough. . . . 



Araliacece. Two species of the fine genus Panax are not 

 uncommon. 



19. I think I gathered every plant of this order I 



