Mr. J. Miers on the Genus Rliabdia. 435 



lobes of a dark rose-colour ; the ovary, seated on a small fleshy 

 disk, is 1 line, the style 2 lines long ; the crimson berry en- 

 closes four small nuts imbedded in a small quantity of pulp. 

 It was found in flower and fruit in the months of March and 

 April. Its vernacular name is Apicwn. 



2. RJiabdia crehrifolia^ n. sp. ; — ramis teretibus, nudis, fuscis, 

 glabris ; ramulis brevibus, imbricatim foliosis, novellis pu- 

 berulis ; foliis lineari-oblongis, a medio ad basin sensim 

 angustatis, superne subacutis, cum acumine brevissimo ca- 

 naliculatim reflexo, integris, utraque facie opacis, pallide 

 concoloribus et pilis simplicibus molliter puberulis, crassis, 

 fere enerviis, costa subtus prominula, primum erectis, dein 

 subreflexis, petiolo tereti, puberulo, limbo 15-plo breviore : 

 racemulis in ramulis novellis terminalibus, brevibus, intra 

 folia dense imbricata fere absconditis, alternatim 4-5-floris ; 

 pedicellis brevibus, imo bractea majore, medio bracteola 

 lanceolata pilosa donatis ; calyce ebracteato, profunde 5- 

 partito, lobis oblongis, acuminatis ; bacca subglobosa, nitente, 

 calyce persistente inclusa. — In Brasilia : v. s. in herb, Mus, 

 Brit, et Hook., prov. Ceara (Gardner, 1793). 



This plant, somewhat resembling the preceding, was found 

 by Gardner on the sandy banks of the Rio Salgado, near the 

 town of Ico, in August 1838. It diffbrs in its closer, more 

 imbricated, smaller leaves, narrowed at the base, upon a very 

 short petiole, and not sinuated on the margin. The branches 

 are generally of no great length ; but the flowering branchlets, 

 seldom more than 1^ inch long, and 4-6 lines apart, are thickly 

 covered with imbricated leaves, and bear a single raceme 

 almost hidden at their extremity; the leaves are 6-8 lines 

 long, 2 J lines broad, narrowing gradually towards the base 

 into an extremely short petiole ; the raceme is 4-8 lines long, 

 with four or five alternate flowers, upon pedicels \-l line long; 

 the basal bract is 3 or 4 lines, the median one 2 lines long ; 

 the calyx is shortly campanular at its base, and cleft into five 

 equal erect segments somewhat imbricated in aestivation, 

 broader in the middle than at the base, and very acute, 2 lines 

 long, smooth inside, covered outside with short soft hairs 

 emanating from minute tubercles, and with ciliated margins ; 

 the corolla is very deciduous, its tube 1 line long, its border 

 somewhat campanulate and reflected, has five lobes 2^ lines 

 long, I line broad ; the filaments, glabrous, fixed near the base 

 of the tube, are 2 lines long; the anthers subglobose and 

 didymous ; there is no disk, but the subglobose ovary is shortly 

 stipitated ; the style is compressed, 2-grooved, the length of 

 the stamens, and persistent ; the flat peltate stigma is 2-lobed, 



