134 ON SOTJTH-AMEEICAN APOCYNACE^. 



acuminate, 4 in. long, J in. thick; seeds with a slender rostrum half their length, 

 terminated by a coma as long as the seed. 



2. Stipecoma peltata, nob.: Echites peltata, Veil. Fl. Mum. p. 110^ Icon. iii. tab. 33; A. DC. (in 

 parte) /. c. p. 465; Miill. (in parte) /• c. p. 159 (excl. tab. 53. fig. 3). In Brasilia, prov. Eio de 

 Janeiro, in montibus : non vidi. 



Velloz found this species on the confines of that province, on the road leading from 

 Cunha to Santa Cruz. The plants cited by Muller as constituting it belong to another 

 species (mucronata), which I found in the Organ Mountains; and it is manifest that 

 neither he nor De Candolle had seen VeUoz's plant, which has much larger leaves and a 

 different inflorescence. This species has much larger leaves than any of the others (if we 

 except ^S*. macrocalyx). Its branches are more than 3 lines thick ; the oblong-ovate 

 leaves are orbicular at the base, shortly acute at the summit, quite glabrous, QJ in. long, 

 6^ in. broad, the iusertion of the stout petiole (3 in. long) being 2 iu. from the base ; 

 opposite axillary racemes, shorter than the young leaves from which they spring ; the 

 peduncle 1 in. long, bears about 3 alternate flowers, supported by as many oblong bracts 

 5 lines long ; the pedicels, 6 lines long, bear in the middle 2 acute bracteoles 2^ lines 

 long ; sepals acutely oblong, 9 lines long, 2^ Hnes broad ; corolla large, sulphur-coloured ; 

 tube cylindrical, stoutish, constricted in the middle, 1| in. long; segments spathulate- 

 oblong, inequilateral, obliquely truncate, 1 in. long, 5 lines broad ; stamens seated in 

 the contraction of the tube ; anthers acute, 4 lines long ; disk sub-5-lobed, as long as 

 the ovaries, which they embrace ; 2 foUicles teretely cylindrical, a little arcuate, con- 

 joined firmly at the summit, smooth, 8 in. long, 9 lines thick ; seeds acutely oblong, 

 1 in. long, including a rostrum of half their length ; apical coma 1 in. long. 



3. Stipecoma plicata, nob. : Echites plicata, A. DC. /. c. p. 454 : Echites peltata^ Miill. (non Velloz) 

 I. c. p. 159. In prov. Rio de Janeiro, ad ped. Mont. Organ. : v. s. in herb, meo (23. 206) ex loc. cit. 

 sineflore ^Mrs. Fry). 



The above specimen agrees in all respects with the diagnosis of De Candolle ; the in- 

 florescence I have not seen. It is a climbing plant, with flexuose, fistular, angular, 

 striate branches, sparsely covered with fulvous tomentum, its axils being 1^2 in. apart ; 

 leaves ovate-oblong, rounded and pHcately omdulate at the base, suddeiily narrowed at 

 the summit by an acute reflexed acumen, chartaceous, margins cartilaginous and sub- 

 revolute, above olive-green, opake, finely corrugulate, with 7 basal radiating nerves, and 

 7 pairs of lateral divergent immersed nerves, below fulvo-ochraceous, opake, obsoletely 

 tomentous, with prominent reddish costa and straight nerves, aU arcuately conjoined 

 within the margin, and immersed transverse veins ; they are 3^5 in. long, 1|-2|- in. broad, 

 on stout petioles 1-1| in. long, inserted i— f in. within the margin, patent or subdeflexed at 

 the base. The inflorescence, according to De Candolle, is axillary, short, 1- or 2-flowered, 

 subtomentous, on a very short peduncle, with 2 or 4 bracts 3 lines long ; pedicels 6 lines 

 long ; sepals obtusely oblong, glabrous, shorter than the pedicels ; corolla yellow, glabrous ; 

 tube 9 lines long, thicker above the calyx, and there pilose and staminigerous within ; 



