49 



a sort of aril, beneath which the surface is rugose. This cover- 

 ing, the fleshy funicles and the placentae, are said to be eaten. I 

 could gain no adequate idea of the flavor or other edible qualities 

 from the ignorant peon, but I found the anomalous form and 

 structure of the fruit sufficiently interesting. The floral char- 

 acters, and those of the plant itself, are not less so. The her- 

 baceous, prostrate or reclining milky-juiced stems, approximating 

 a yard in length, are produced from a large tuberous rhizome, 

 and are hollow, fleshy and juicy. The leaves are alternate, 

 smooth, glaucous beneath, somewhat triangulate, the margin vary- 

 ing from sinuate to 3-lobed, and palmately 3-5 nerved. Those of 

 the female plant have a large light blotch on the upper surface. 

 The small lilac or violet tubular flowers exhibit remarkable dif- 

 ferences in the two sexes, the most striking of which is the alter- 

 nation of the petals with the calyx-lobes in the pistillate flower, 

 while they are anteposed in the staminate. 



Since the plant appears never to have been described in Eng- 

 lish, an abridged translation of Ramirez' description is here given, 

 in addition to the above notes. 



Largest leaves with blade 5 or 6 cm. long, by 3.5 or 4 cm. wide, 

 the petioles as long as the blade, nearly horizontal and cylindrical, 

 with a branch and an inflorescence in each axil. Inflorescence a 

 subdichotomus raceme in the male plant, solitary in the female. 



Staminate Floz\.'ers. — Calyx very small, 5-fid, the lobes trian- 

 gular, opposite those of the corolla, lightly rose-colored at the 

 margin. Corolla light-purple, funnel-form, with variable prae- 

 floration, the tube lightly narrowed upward and with a few hairs 

 within, below the throat, the lobes oblong. Stamens 10, introrse, 

 inserted in the throat, their summits all at the same level, the 

 filaments united at the base, five of them very short and opposite 

 the corolla-lobes, the alternate ones much longer, the anthers basi- 

 fixed, those with short filaments longer, longitudinally dehiscent. 

 The large connective forms a margin for the posterior surface 

 and projects above, and is hairy. Rudimentary ovary filiform. 



Pistillate Flozvcrs. — Peduncle 4.5 cm. long, bearing two or 

 three bracts. Calyx as in the staminate. but the lobes alternating 



