30 



N. Ord. POLYGALACE.E. 



Tribe Krameriea. 



Genus Krameria,* Loefling. B. & H., i, p. 140 ; Berg, in Bot. 

 Zeitung, 1856, 745, &c.; Baill., v, p. 92. Species 20 or 

 more, natives of the hotter parts of N. and S. America. 



30. Krameria triandra, Ruiz % Pavon, Fl. p&ruv., i, p. 61 



(1798). 



Ratankia, Mapato, Pumacuchu (Pern). 



Figures. Ruiz & Pav., 1. c., t. 93, cop. in Hayne, viii, t. 14, Nees, t.413, 

 Steph. & Ch., t. 72, and Woodville, vol. v; Berg & Sch., t. 3f ; Baill ' 

 1. c., figs. 116-121. 



Description. A low shrub with long decumbent branches and 

 many spreading, bare, cylindrical twigs covered with a dark 

 greyish-brown bark, when young hoary with erect silky hairs ; 

 root- crown large and thick, with very long cylindrical branches 

 reaching inch in diameter and covered with a thick bark blackish- 

 red outside and orange red within. Leaves alternate, irregularly 

 scattered or crowded, sessile, | inch long, obovate- or oblong- 

 lanceolate, apiculate, entire, covered on both surfaces with 

 longish, adpressed, silvery hairs, very dense and somewhat 

 rufous on the young leaves and buds. Flowers rather large, at 

 the extremities of short branches from the axils of the upper 

 leaves, each with two small opposite leaves a little below the 

 flower. Sepals 4, imbricate, spreading cross-wise, lanceolate, the 

 two lateral ones smaller, externally densely silky, internally 

 quite smooth, shining and scarlet. Petals 4, dissimilar, red, the 

 two posterior in front of the posterior sepal, separate, thick, 

 spathulate, acute ; the two anterior small roundish, thick, concave 

 and smooth within, scaly on the outside. Stamens 3, hypo- 

 gynous, about half as long as the spathulate posterior petals and 

 alternating with them, filaments fleshy, thickened upwards, red, 

 anthers urceolate, 2 -celled, opening at the top by a large circular 

 orifice bordered with very short hairs ; ovary ovoid- spherical, 



* Krameria, dedicated to Dr J. G. H. Kramer, a Hungarian physician. 



