2 9 o NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



few long sarmentose leafy branches. The leaves of each pair 

 are very unequal, and the smaller one sometimes obsolete ; the 

 larger one is long, lance-shaped, and, while the rest of the leaf 

 is green, the apex and sometimes part of the margin are 

 stained of a deep red, so as to resemble a lance dipped in blood, 

 whence the native name "punta de lanza." The axillary flowers 

 are comparatively inconspicuous, and they are partially concealed 

 by large red or blood-stained bracts ; they seem to vary consider- 

 ably in structure in the different species, but I have scarcely 

 examined them, and cannot, therefore, refer these plants witrr 

 certainty to their proper genus. Another group, whereof two 

 species were seen and gathered, has the long tubular corolla sub- 

 tended by pinnati-partiti sepals, which are so densely beset with 

 stout jointed hairs as to resemble the calyx of a moss rose, a 

 peculiarity which I do not find noted in any described species of 

 this order. One of the two is a small under-shrub, with the 

 calyx and the corolla yellow; the other a slender herbaceous 

 twiner with a scarlet calyx and a dull violet corolla. An 

 Achimenes, with pretty scarlet flowers, abounds along the 

 declivities. 



ig/io/iiacece, 2. The one a Bignonia, with round stems ; the 

 other an Amphilophium, with 6-angled stems ; both twiners. An- 

 other Bignonia w r as seen, not in flower. I saw no tree of this 

 order, though Tecomae exist both in the plain and in the cool 

 hill forests. I have never seen any climbing Bignoniaceae at a 

 greater elevation than about 3500 feet, but they form a large 

 proportion of the scandent vegetation of the hot plains. 



Acanthacea, 9. This order is tolerably abundant, and two 

 under -shrubs growing about the lower boundary of the Bark 

 region bear spikes of large handsome scarlet flowers, in appear- 

 ance like those of a Justicia, but different in character. A Men- 

 dozia, with woody twining stems and umbels of small white 

 verbena-like flowers, grows everywhere. 



Scroplntlariaceie, 4. All humble herbs, two of them species of 

 Herpestes, and all rather scarce. 



Of Ferns and their allies I gathered the following : 



Species. 



Equisetum . i 



Lycopodium 2 



Selaginella 6 



Polybotrya . i 



Rhipidopteris . i 



Elaphoglossum . . 5 



Lomaria .... 2 



Blechnum i 



Xiphopteris . . i 



Gymnopteris i 



