166 ON SOUTH-AMEEICAN APOCYNACILE. 



lanceolate, fleshy, glabrous, mth. revolute margins, ^2 in. long, 2^-5 lines broad ; racemes 

 axillary, on a very long naked peduncle, bearing 1 or more flowers ; sepals short ; corolla 

 hypocrateriform, with a long, narrow, cylindrical tube, swollen a little below the mouth ; 

 segments rotate, roseate red ; disk of 2 orbicular lobes. 



Peestoniopsis. 



This is a very good genus, established by Miiller, in 1860, upon the Echites pubescens 

 of WUldenow {non Hook.), one of Humboldt's plants, the exact locality of which was not 

 known ; but this I find is Bogota. The plant was first noticed by Willdenow, under a 

 short account stating that it had an axiUary subumbellate inflorescence. Miiller has 

 given a copious floral character of it from a specimen stated to be incomplete ; my ex- 

 amination of Mutis's plant confirms the correctness of Miiller's details in every particular. 

 He observes that, although it offers a slight resemblance to Frestonia in habit and ag- 

 gregated flowers, it is very dissimilar in its floral structure ; and he points to Laseguea 

 as its nearest ally. According to my view, the genus must be placed in the Dvpladeniece, 

 on account of its bilobed disk. In habit it approaches Micradenia ; and in the small size 

 of its flowers it offers some similarity to Somaladenia. The calyx consists of 5 narrow, 

 very acuminate sepals of unequal length, quincuncially imbricate, and furnished within 

 with a basal, bidentate scale ; the tube of the corolla is cylindrical, as long as the sepals, 

 and narrowed at its base for a quarter of its length; segments as long as the tube, 

 narrowly oblong, and erect, dextrorsely convolute in aestivation ; stamens seated at the con- 

 striction of the tube ; filaments short, glabrous, af&xed to a tuft of white hairs in the sinus 

 of the anthers ; anthers sublinear, with an apical membrane, and shortly cordate at the 

 base, cohering in a cone by their agglutination to the clavuncle ; disk of 2 broadish^ flat, 

 opposite lobes, shorter than the 2 free ovaries ; a short style surmounted by a very thick 

 5-grooved clavuncle, indusiate at its base by a narrow membrane ; stigmata 2, short ^nd 

 terminal ; 2 foUicles, subulately terete, rather stout, subdivaricate ; seeds many, subu- 

 lately terete, with a very erect apical coma nearly twice its length. ' 



1. Prestoniopsis pubescens, Miiller, Bot. Zeit. 1860, p. 22, tab. 1 (in parte infer.) figs. 1-6 ; id. Linn. 

 XXX, p. 439 : Echites pubescens (non Hook. & Am.) , Willd. in R. & Sch. iv. p. 796 ; Kxmth. Nov. Gtjn. 

 iii. 453; A. DC. Prodr. viii. 476. In Nova Granada: v. s. in herb. Mm. Brit. Bogota (Mutis). 



This is said to be a scandent shrub ; its branches are somewhat stout, lenticellatej.y 

 verrucose, pubescent, compressed, and dilated at the nodes by a transverse ridge ; axils 

 2-3 in. apart ; leaves opposite, subpatent, oblong-ovate, cordate at the base, acutely 

 acuminate, darkish green above, with immersed nerves, pubescent, yellowish opake lije- 

 neath, nerves prominent, 3| in. long. If in. broad, on pubescent petioles 5 lines long ; 

 inflorescence axillary, on a peduncle 9^ lines long ; flowers very numerous, in a subcapi- 

 tate head, on pedicels obsoletely pUose, 3 lines long, each with 2 acute bracts 1^ line long ; 

 sepals linear-lanceolate, very acuminate, unequal in length, 4-5 lines long, quincuncially 

 imbricate, pilose outside, with an internal, bidentate, linear scale ; tube of coroUa 



