Deherainia smaragdina, Dcne. 
BY 
BERTHA CHANDLER, M.A., B.Sc. 
With Plate LIX. 
DEHERAINIA SMARAGDINA was described in 1876 by Decaisne,* 
and the genus was named by him in honour of M. Pierre-Paul 
Deherain, aide-naturaliste of the Museum of the Jardin des 
Plantes. Later, in 1878, we have a description of the plant by 
Hooker ¢ from a specimen growing at Kew. It thrives best as 
a stove plant, under warm, moist conditions, for the conditions 
of its native habitat, near Tabasco, Mexico, are damp and tropical. 
The particularly fine specimen—a symmetrical, well-formed 
Edinburgh, has afforded material for the following description :— 
Deherainia smaragdina, of the order Theophrastaceae, is a 
much-branched, woody shrub, with twigs, leaves, and flower stalks 
covered with rusty-brown hairs. The leaves are simple, lanceo- 
late, 2-5 in. in length, acute, alternate in arrangement, and 
crowded together at the apex of the branches in the form of a 
rosette (Fig. 1). They are deep-green in colour, and somewhat 
coriaceous intexture. On the upper surface the hairs are confined 
to the mid-rib, while the ventral surface is lighter coloured, and 
The petiole is comparatively short and also hairy. The 
flowers are characterised by their green colour, hence the 
specific name. They arise singly in the axils of the 
apical rosettes of leaves on a short pedicel, which does 
not bear prophylls. The calyx is pale-green in colour, hemi- 
spherical in shape, and five-partite ; the lobes are imbricate, 
orbicular, coriaceous, membranous at the margins, which are also 
finely ciliated. The corolla (Fig. 2a, c) is from 2-24 in. in dia- 
and deeper green in c 
and coriaceous, pale an 
ciliated. The throat of the corolla is short, bluish 
* Ann. Sc. Nat., Sér- 6, tom. iil, p. 139- + Bot. Mag. 1878. 
{Notes R.B.G., Edin., No. XXU, November rgt!.) 
