540 Mr. MiERS on some new Brazilian Plants 



glabrous, subhyaline or opake : 7-oot consisting- of a subligneous, some- 

 what fleshy, irregularly fusiform tuber, covered with numerous imbricate, 

 obovate, acute, whitish, reticulated scales, fringed with long cilia: the 

 root also throws out numerous threadlike branching fibres of considerable 

 length. Stem erect, slender, cylindrical, subflexuose, spirally twisting, 

 white, of rather softish texture, about ten inches in height, sometimes 

 simple, less frequently branched. Branchlets erect, furnished at distant 

 intervals with minute bracteiform leaves, and all terminated by a double 

 spike of flowers. Leaves alternate, obovate, with acute tips, entire, reti- 

 culate, witht)ut any longitudinal nerve, erect and adpressed against the 

 stem, about a line long, white, bearing a resemblance to small bractes, 

 persistent, and distant about half, or rarely an inch, from each other. 

 Racemes double, with alternate simple pedicellate flowers ; pedicels first 

 ascending, then recurved, so that each flower is pendent, four times the 

 length of the bractes, three times the length of the flower at maturity, 

 each furnished with a bracte similar in size and form to the stem-leaves, 

 always either lateral or opposite, and usually a little below the origin of 

 each pedicel. Perianthium adnate to the ovarium at base, above tubular, 

 contracted below the mouth ; border six-cleft, three segments or sepals 

 being more exterior, and overlapping the alternating inner segments or 

 petals in aestivation, white, persistent and withering, but deciduous on 

 the bursting of the capsule. Sepals oblong, acute, erect. Petals obovate, 

 somewhat smaller, shorter and rounder than the sepals, erect, concave, 

 whitish, and often deciduous. Stamens three, arising from below the 

 centre of each petal ; filament, or what may rather be considered as con- 

 nective, an uncinate, projecting, fleshy process, forming a sort of very 

 small pouch attached to the perianth, and on its margin, on each side of 

 the point, are suspended two distinct parallel anther-cells, which are 

 ovate and rounded, somewhat two-lobed, attached by their back, of a 

 pale yellow or almost white, bursting transversely across the middle, and 

 displaying the pollen, which is of a dark yellow colour, composed of 

 closely-packed somewhat waxy granules, coarser than the ordinary grains 

 of pollen, and approximating in appearance to the poUinia of Orchidece. 

 Ovarium inferior, urceolate, white, hyaline, unilocular, with three parietal 



