543 PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA. Ophiorrkiztt. 



Moot consisting of a number of long, piuk-coloured, fibres. — Stems 

 several, creeping at the bas-e, from thence ascending, the upper pait 

 erect, from six inches to two feet high, slender, round, thickly beset 

 with short, ferruginous, spreading hairs, somewhat swelled and joint- 

 ed at the insertion of the leaves. — These are spreading, opposite, 

 lanceolate, ending in a long point, acute at the base, from one and a 

 half, to two and a half inches long, the upper surface furrowed along 

 the neives, dark-green, shining, somewhat rough with short, pellu- 

 cid hairs ; pallid underneath, with oblique, arcuate, reticulate, pube- 

 scent nerves. Petiol villous, flat above, one of each pair generally 

 shorter than the other; as is also the case with respect to the leaves 

 themselves.—- Stipules interpetiolar, ensiform, widening at the base, 

 two or three lines long, sometimes bifid, slightly recurved, at length 

 deciduous. — Corymb terminal, about the height of the uppermost 

 pair of leaves, bifid or tiifid. Peduncle an inch to two long, vil- 

 lous, round, fleshy, with two subulate, erect bractes about the mid- 

 dle. — Flowers white, pubescent, geminate, unilateral : one sessile, 

 the other pedicelled, besides a sessile one in each bifurcation. Pe- 

 dicels short, supported by minute linear bractlets. Calycine taci- 

 ilia, minute, subulate, distant, erect. — Corolla five lines long; tube 

 cy'indric, a little widening at its base; limb divided into five lance- 

 olate, acute lobes, half the length of the tube, villous above, as is al- 

 so the mo.uth of the tube. — Filaments smooth, inserted above the 

 base of the corolla; anthers linear, enclosed. — Ovary fleshy, small, 

 cbovate, a little compressed, pallid, two-celled; ovula numerous, 

 inserted towards the bottom of the very narrow septum, on a fleshy 

 placenta. Style pubescent.— Stigma subulate, fleshy, two-Jobed, a lit- 

 tle below the throat of the .corolla. — Nectary two-lobed, crowning 

 the ovary within the laciuiae of the calyx, opposite to its septum. 



Obs. It is hardly possible to fix on any positive character to dis- 

 linguish among the species of this genus. — O. villosa, Roxb. of 

 which I have abundant specimens before me from Siibei, is a 

 much shorter and less branchy plant; i:s leaves are whitish or silve- 

 ry underneath. — N. \V. 



