544 Mr. MiERS on some new Brazilian Plants 



racemosa, paucijlora, Jioribus Jlavescenti-albidis basi bracteatis, pedicellis 

 brevissimis apice abrupt^ declinatis subgeniculatis. 

 Derivatio ex KVfi(3r], cymba, et Kaptroc, fructus, propter figuram cymbiformein 

 capsiilee post dehiscentiam. 



1. Cymbocarpa refracta. Tab. XXXVIII. fig. 4. 



Native of the Corcovado Mountain, near Rio de Janeiro. 



This plant resembles Dictyostega very much in habit, but the singular form 

 of the stigma and the remarkable dehiscence of the capsule sufficiently distin- 

 guish it. It grows to the height of from three to six inches, and is altogether 

 white with a yellowish hue : it has delicate fibres branching from a simple 

 root : the stem is generally simple, very slender, erect, often flexuose, some- 

 times even tortuose. The bracteiform leaves are erect and free, rather acute, 

 and very small. The stem is terminated by a pair of few-flowered racemes, 

 each generally with from three to six flowers upon short pedicels, with a 

 single small bracte on its summit, where the flower is suddenly bent back at a 

 right angle. The tubular perianthium above the portion investing the oval- 

 shaped ovarium is very short, and gradually contracted a little below the 

 mouth, where it again expands, and its border is divided into six unequal 

 segments, the three erect acute sepals being alternate with the three shorter 

 petals, which are of an oval form, and somewhat concave, more interior, and 

 fixed by a short claw in the rounded spaces intervening between the sepals. 

 The stamens resemble those of Dictyostega in all respects. The ovarium is 

 oblong, rounded, slightly conical at its summit, where it is free from the 

 perianthium, and from it rises an erect, slender, short style ; the stigmata, each 

 with two long subulate erect horns, according to the description given in the 

 generic character, are of a whitish colour ; they nearly fill the mouth of the 

 tube, and are contiguous to the stamens. The somewhat trigonous capsule, 

 crowned by the persistent withered perianthium and style, bursts only on one 

 of its angles in the singular manner described, displaying a great number of 

 yellowish, opake, scobiform seeds, which are crowded upon the three longitu- 

 dinal, horny, parietal placentae. It was found in the Corcovado Mountain, 

 close to the spot where the Dictyostega orobanchioides occurs. 



