47 



In the following description the characters of the plant, except- 

 ing as to its flowers, were taken from the herbarium material 

 referred to above, Williams, no. 600, Nov. 14, 1 901, in the her- 

 barium of the New York Botanical Garden ; the characters of 

 the flowers were drawn from fresh material secured from the 

 plants grown from seed, and preserved in the herbarium of the 

 same institution. 



Begonia Williamsii Rusby & Nash 



Stems up to 2 dm. tall, from a tuberous base. Leaves up to 8 ; 

 petiole 5—7 cm. long, smooth and glabrous ; blade palmately 

 veined, smooth and glabrous on both surfaces, marked on the 

 upper surface with silvery spots, peltate, the portion below the 

 umbilicus to that above as i or 2 to 20, up to i dm. long, the 

 greatest diameter up to 1.5 dm., 5-6-lobed, the lobes up to one 

 half the diameter of the blade, lanceolate-triangular to lanceolate, 

 acuminate, crenate, the teeth cuspidate, the basal sinus an obtuse 

 angle, the remaining ones acute : peduncle up to 13 cm. long, 

 glandular-pubescent with short spreading hairs, as are also the 

 divisions of the 5-chotomous cyme and the pedicels : perianth of 

 the staminate flowers with 2 divisions, rarely with i or 2 smaller 

 narrow inner ones, pellucid, green, orbicular or nearly so, the one 

 I— 1.25 cm. in diameter, the other slightly smaller ; the stamens 

 unequal in length, 2—3 mm. long, inserted on a somewhat convex 

 receptacle ; the glabrous filaments salmon ; the anthers orange, 

 orbicular- reniform, much shorter than the filaments, about 0.75 

 mm. long and 0.8-0.9 "^"^- wide, broadest above the middle, 

 rounded truncate at the apex : pistillate flowers on pedicels i- 

 1.5 cm. long, the 5 divisions ovate to broadly ovate, acute, 5-6 

 mm. long and 3—5 mm. wide, the inner the narrower, the ovary 

 y—^i mm. long and about 3.5 mm. broad, elliptic, the median line, 

 including the wings, about i cm. long, two of the wings truncate 

 at the apex or nearly so, and narrower than the third wing which 

 has the upper line somewhat ascending, all the wings converging 

 toward the rounded base of the ovary, the ovary and wings 

 glandular-pubescent, the placentas divided to the base into two 

 somewhat curved lamellae, these ovule-bearing to the base on 

 both sides : styles persistent, 4—5 mm. long, free or slightly 

 united at the base, 2-branched, each branch broadened and flat- 

 tened at the base and this margined by the stigmatic surface 

 which continues spirally to the apex and is continuous at the base 

 between the two branches, often as a pronounced undulation : 



