TOG Lxxxv. GENTIANS^. [Seboia 



quite ripe foveolate. Parasitic on the rhizomes of low Cyperacese, in 

 damp shortly grassy pastures along the Humpata river (Quipumpun- 

 hime), plentiful ; fl. and fr. 24 April 1860. No. 1522. 



3. S. affinis Welw. ms. in Herb. 



An annual, slender, erect, glabrous, sub-glaucescent herb, 

 8 to 12 in. high, branched from the base ; radical leaves 

 rostilate, broadly elliptical, obtuse ; stem quadrangular, with 

 the angles sub-acute and membranous-winged, several times 

 dichotomously divided, gradually finishing in a corymbose flower- 

 ing panicle ; stem-leaves ovate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate 

 at the apex, somewhat narrowed at the base, sessile, the upper- 

 most ones the smallest ; flowers ^r to ^ in. long, on short unequal 

 pedicels or subsessile ; calyx pentagonal, |^ to i in. long, 5-partite ; 

 the segments acutely keeled, obtusely acuminate at the apex, 

 with broad white membranous margins ; corolla salver-shaped, 

 yellow, the tube somewhat inflated, narrowed below the 5 -cleft 

 limb; the lobes ovate-acuminate, spreading at the time of the 

 flower, in old age spirally twisted above the ovary ; stamens 5, 

 exserted; filaments very short, equal, inserted in the sinuses 

 between the corolla-lobes ; anthers attached at the middle of the 

 back, longitudinally dehiscing, obtusely sagittate at the base, 

 subspiral at the apex in old age, surmounted at the apex with 

 a small sub-orbicular rather thick waxy-yellow gland, scarcely 

 curved at the apex ; ovary elliptical, bi-ovulate ; the margins 

 inti'oflected ; ovules very numerous, horizontal ; style terminal,, 

 short, straight ; stigma longer than the style, simple, rather 

 thick, subprismatic-clavate, level with the anthers, obtuse, thinly 

 papillose-pubescent ; unripe ca23sule ellipsoidal-inflated, bilocular ; 

 placentation at length free ; seeds minute, very numerous. 



MossAMEDES. — In a moist sandy spot, usually flooded, among low 

 bushes at the left bank of the river Bero (Rio das Mortes) near 

 Cavalheiros ; only one specimen seen ; fl. and fr. 21 Sept. 1859. 

 No. 1519. 



This diifers from S. brachypJiijUa by the stem-leaves being ovate- 

 acuminate and not obtuse, by the much laxer inflorescence, by the 

 alate calyx, by the corolla-lobes being gradually more acuminate, and 

 by the larger glands on the anthers. 



2. PARASIA Rafin. Fl. Tellur. iii. p. 78 (1836). 



Belmontia E. Mey. (1837) ; Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 804. 



1. P. platyptera. 



Belmontia p/at>/j)tera Baker in Kew Bull. 1894, p. 25. 



PuNCio Andongo.— An annual, erect, little herb ; stem winged- 

 quadrangular, as well as the rather fleshy leaves herbaceous-green ; 

 branches opposite ; flowers yellow, rather small, with a circle of small 

 glands between the bottom of the calyx and the funnel-shaped corolla: 

 corolla-lobes ovate, rather obtuse ; stamens included ; ovary very 

 shortly stipitate, beset around the base with very small crowded 

 glands sessile at the bottom of the calyx, that is, at the base of the 

 corolla ; style sparingly pubescent, reaching the middle of the anthers; 

 stigma somewhat bifid, papillose ; placentation central, 4-parted, quite 



