Mr. J. Miers on the genus Margaranthus. 251 



Schlechtendal. Its stems however are far more slender, more 

 deeply angular, quite smooth, with internodes about 2 inches 

 apart ; the radical leaves may probably be of greater size, but the 

 largest leaves in the specimen referred to, are about 1. j inch long, 

 upon a very slender petiole of J inch, and are about 4 lines broad, 

 with four or five somewhat obsolete teeth on the margin. The 

 flowers are seen only in the nascent axils, while the young leaves 

 have not attained the length of 4 lines ; the capillary peduncle is 

 very hairy, and about 2 lines long ; the calyx is scarcely a line in 

 length, cylindrical, and is densely covered, especially below the 

 middle, with articulate and rigid white hairs: the corolla is 

 tubular, and contracted at base to the diameter of one-third of a 

 line, but as it emerges from the calyx, it swells suddenly in a 

 somewhat globular form to a diameter of 2 lines, marked with 

 five grooves opposite the stamens, and five intermediate saccate 

 projections, which are below the five minute short teeth, that 

 crown the suddenly contracted mouth of the corolla, which is here 

 even narrower than the inferior portion of the tube ; it is entirely 

 smooth and apparently of a lurid white, the saccate lobes seeming 

 of a dull violet hue ; outside it is smooth, inside somewhat hairy ; 

 the stamens, nearly the length of the corolla, are wholly included, 

 the filaments being very short, smooth, somewhat arcuate, and 

 inserted into the basal contraction of the tube ; the anthers are 

 four times the length of the filaments, linear, with two narrow 

 cells, fixed along their whole length, upon a narrow dorsal con- 

 nective which forms an extension of the filament ; the cells burst 

 by a longitudinal line in front, and also by an apical pore, for 

 the external valves are there reflected on each side. The ovarium 

 is small, obovate, superior, and fixed upon a somewhat two-lobed 

 annular gland; the style is exserted beyond the mouth of the 

 corolla, is smooth, somewhat subulate, and truncated at its apex 

 by a small stigmatic pore. The matured fruit, in consequence of 

 the apparently quick growth of the plant, is found only in the di- 

 chotomy of the branches, where the peduncle is from 2 to 3 lines 

 long : the calyx is now become greatly enlarged, having acquired 

 a globular form, 4 lines in diameter, very finely reticulated, and 

 contracted in the mouth, which is closed by a very small five- 

 toothed orifice ; the included berry is globular, 2^ lines in dia- 

 meter, with a very thin membranaceous pericarp, apparently 

 without pulp, and probably once filled with an aqueous juice ; it 

 is two-celled, and contains about fourteen seeds, which are of a 

 large size compared with the smallness of the berry ; these are 

 flat, thin, nearly oval, reniform ; the testa is scrobiculate and 

 brittle; the horny and rather translucent albumen incloses a 

 somewhat spiral filiform embryo, in which the radicle (at least 

 three times the length of the cotyledon of equal diameter) points 



