MYEICACEAE. 101 



Order 2. PIPERALES. 



Dicotyledonous plants, with neither petals nor sepals, the spicate flowers 

 bracteolate. 



Family 1. PIPERACEAE H.B.K. 



PEPPER FAMILY. 



Herbs, shrubs or rarely small trees, with alternate, opposite or verticil' 

 late leaves, almost always entire-margined, the mostly minute bracteolate 

 flowers in spikes or rarely in racemes. Perianth none. Stamens mostly 

 2-6, hypogynous; anthers erect, terminal, their sacs distinct or confluent, 

 longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary sessile or rarely stipitate^ 1-celled, 1- 

 ovuled; style 1; ovule erect, orthotropous. Fruit baccate, indehiscent. 

 Seed solitary, the testa membranous, the endosperm copious, the embryo 

 minute. About 6 genera with over 1000 species, mostly of tropical 

 distribution. 



1. PEPEROMIA B. & P. Prodr. 8. 1794. 



Herbs, mostly succulent, with alternate, opposite or verticillate leaves, the 

 flowers in slender, solitary or clustered spikes, subtended by circular or elliptic 

 bracts. Stamens 2 ; filaments short. Ovary mostly sessile, sometimes stalked, 

 sometimes beaked; stigma terminal or lateral. Berry very small, globose, 

 oblong or ellipsoid, viscid. . [Greek, pepper.] Six hundred species or more, 

 mostly of tropical America. Type species: Peperomia secunda E. & P. 



1. Peperomia spathulifolia Small, sp. nov. 



Plants mainly terrestrial, strongly aromatic. Stems and branches decum- 

 bent, partly creeping; leaf -blades cuneate to spatulate, 6-11 cm. long, rounded, 

 truncate or notched at the apex, glabrous, bright-green, obscurely veined, ex- 

 cept sometimes in drying, acuminate at the base or attenuate into long or 

 rather long petioles; inflorescence with a slender often elongate stalk, with one 

 to five slender recurved-nodding branches; spikes mostly 1-2 dm. long, yel- 

 lowish, the rachis less than 2.5 mm. thick, slender-tipped; bracts orbicular, 

 about 0.3 mm. in diameter; anthers about 0.25 mm. in diameter; berries not 

 densely crowded, broadly ellipsoid or ovoid, nearly 1 mm. long, rounded at the 

 base, the beak much shorter than the body, strongly curved or hooked. 



Deep woods, Abaco, in coppice at Eight Mile Bay : Florida ; Haiti. SPATTJ- 



LATE-LEAVED WlLD PEPPER. 



Order 3. MYRICALES. 



Shrubs or trees, with simple leaves and small monoecious or dioecious 

 flowers in aments. Perianth none. Ovary 1-celled; style short; stigmas 



2. Ovule erect, orthotropous. Endosperm none. Only one family. 



Family 1. MYRICACEAE Dumort. 

 BAYBERRY FAMILY. 



Leaves alternate, mostly coriaceous and aromatic. Flowers solitary in 

 the axils of the bracts. Staminate flower with 2-16 (usually 4-8) stamens 



