158 ON SOTJTH-AMEEICAN APOCTNACE^. 



MlCRADENIA. 



A series of plants, first placed in a group distinct from Bipladenia by Prof. DeCandolle 

 in 1844. These are distinguished from the former by their habit, especially in the incras- 

 sated axils of the branches, furnished with a whorl of warty glands between the petioles, 

 in the pedicels of the flowers spirally twisted, in the anthers with long, obtuse, parallel, 

 basal prongs, in the much shorter disk, seldom attaining more than a quarter of the length 

 of the ovaries, in the incrassated placenta of the follicles, from which are suspended many 

 flat imbricate seeds having a nearly obsolete coma of short scale-like hairs. It forms 

 a very good genus, weU-marked by constant and xmiformly peculiar characters. 



MicEADENiA, A. DC. : Sepala 5, subparva, valde acuminata, quincuncialiter imbricata, intus ad basin 

 squamulis 2 bidentatis munita, persistentia. Corolla majuscula; tubus glaber, pro \ parte crassior 

 angustissime cylindricus, dein ampliatus, cylindrice campanulatus, ssepius submembranaceus j seg- 

 menta 5, rhomboideo-dolabriformia, latere mucronata, tubo ssepius 3plo breviora. Stamina ad con- 

 tractionem tubi in annnlo piloso inserta ; filamenta subbrevia, niveo-pilosa ; antherm lineari-oblongae, 

 aeutse, basi in forcas 2 obtusulas parallele lineares fissse. Discus e Ipbis 2 oppositis, brevissime 

 latis, rotundatis, quam ovaria ssepius 4plo brevioribus. Ovaria 2, acute oblonga, lobis disci alterna; 

 stylus tenuis, imo fissus, cruribus cum ovario articnlatis ; clavuncula incrassata, 5-sulcata, imo mem- 

 brana peltata'indnsiata, ad antheras cohaerens; stigmata 2, minima, acuta, terminalia. Folliculi 2, 

 erecti, curvati, teretes, sutura ventrali debiscentes, marginibus introflexis in placentam cylindricam 

 coalitis ; semina plurima, parva, compressissima, obspatbulata, raphe tenui sequilonga summo sus- 

 pensa ; coma brevissima, e pHis paucis brevissimis, subpaleaceis. 



Sufirutices Brasilienses, ramosissimi ; rami subsarmentosi, scepe flexuosi ; axUlse scepe approximattB, 

 valde incrassatoe, glandulis plurimis carnosis verticillatim munitte ; folia opposita, elliptico-oblonga, 

 sapius longiuscule petiolata ; racemi axillares vel terminales, pauciflori ; flores speciosi, albi, rosei vel 

 atro-purpurei ; pedicelli spiraliter torti. 



1. MicRADENiA CRAssiNODA, A. DC. I. c. p. 486 : Echites crassinoda, Gardn. Lond. Joum. Bot. i. 54i : 

 Bipladenia crassinoda, MiiU. (non Lindl.) I. c. p. 132. In Brasilia, prov. Rio de Janeiro : v. v. in 

 summo Monte Corcovado : v. v. et sice, in herb, meo (3137) ; in hb. Mus. Brit. ; v. s. ex eodem loco 

 (Gardner, 250). 



I collected this plant in 1836, in company with Gardner. It is of low growth, with 

 many straggling, sarmentose, stout branches, subfistulose, covered irregularly with a 

 lax epidermis, somewhat corrugately striate, very incrassate in the approximate axils, 

 which are only 3-6 lines apart, 3-4 lines broad, bearing on each vside, between the 

 petioles, 4-6 subulate warty excrescences, often pectinately combined together ; leaves 

 lanceolate-oblong, acute at both ends, glabrous, subcoriaceous, green above, with semi- 

 immersed divergent nerves, beneath ferruginously opake, with immersed nerves, 2^-3^ 

 in. long, 5-12 lines broad, on slender channelled petioles 2 lines long ; axillary racemes 

 1^-3 in. long, with a bracteolated peduncle 9 lines long, bearing about 5 alternate white 

 flowers, on spirally twisted pedicels 6-9 lines long, obsoletely bracteolated at the base ; 

 sepals lanceolate, sharply acute, with pellucid margins, having within 2 bifurcate basal 

 scales ; tube of corolla 2 in. long, narrowly cylindrical at the base for a length of 4 lines, 

 funnel-shaped above, with subtruncate, dolabriform segments 10 lines long, 9 lines broad ; 

 stamens 4 Unes long, inserted at the contracted portion of the tube, on a densely pilose 



