ON SOTJTH-AMEEIOAN APOCYNACE^. 231 



slender funiform branches are glabrous ; leayes linear, very narrow, mucronate, on very 

 short petioles ; peduncles axillary, filiform, shorter than the leaves, with 2 floriferous 

 branches, each bearing several small white flowers. 



6. Mesechites angtjstata, nob. : Echites angmtifolia, Benth. (non Poir.), Hook. Journ. Bot. iii. p. 247. 

 In Guiana Brit. : v. s. in herb. Mus. Brit, prope cataractam Kaietur (Appun). 



This species was found by Schomburgk in the sandstone region near Mount Roraima, 

 and afterwards by Appun at the great fall of Kaietur on a tributary river of the lower 

 Essequibo. It is a shrubby plant, with thickish branches and slender subflexuose branch- 

 lets, with axils |-1 in. apart; leaves opposite or ternate, patent, lanceolate-oblong, 

 obtusely narrowed toward the base, obtuse and mucronulate at the apex, subcoriaceous, 

 with very revolute margins, subnitid above, deeply sulcate along the midrib, with many 

 very patent immersed nerves, opake and yellowish beneath, with a very prominent 

 reddish midrib, and semi-immersed nerves, 1-lJ in. long, 1^-2;! lines broad, on chan- 

 nelled petioles 1 line long ; raceme with a flexuose rachis, bearing smallish flowers, on 

 short thick pedicels ; sepals acutely oblong, f line long ; corolla scarlet, salver-shaped ; 

 tube 1 in. long, narrower below the middle, somewhat broader above ; segments more 

 orange-coloured, obliquely ovate, 3 lines long, 2 lines broad ; stamens inserted in the 

 contraction of the tube upon a pilose ring ; filaments slender ; anthers obtusely bilobed 

 at the base ; disk of 5 free oblong lobes as long as the ovaries ; follicles 2, slender, 

 terete, arcuate, conjoined at the apex. 



7. Mesechites subcarnosAj nob. : Echites subcarnosa, Benth. Hook. Journ. Bot. iii. p. 247 : Mandevilla 

 subcamosa, Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. p. 727. In Guiana Brit, circa Boraima (Schomburgk) : v. s. in 

 herb. Mus. Brit, prope cataractam Kaietur (Appun). 



A glabrous shrubby species, near the preceding, with a stoutish subfleshy stem and 

 slender scandent fuscous branchlets ; these are thickened across the approximate axils, 

 which are 1^ line apart ; leaves opposite, lanceolate-elliptic, somewhat attenuated towards 

 each extremity, with a short subobtuse acumen, margins subrevolute, chartaceous, dark 

 green above, with 6 pairs of distant horizontally patent nerves conjoined near the 

 margins, as in Plwneria, with immersed transversely reticulate veins, ochreously paler 

 beneath, opake, with a fuscous prominulent midrib and nerves, nearly 2 in. long or 

 longer, 5 lines broad, on slender channelled petioles 2 lines long ; raceme with several 

 subspicate flowers on short pedicels ; sepals acute, 1^ line long ; corolla salver-shaped, 

 tube a little wider above ; fructiferous peduncle 6 lines long, closely cicatrized ; follicles 

 2, slender, terete, subtorulose, 4-4^ in. long, 1 line thick ; seeds 4 lines long, linear, with 

 a reddish spreading coma 6 lines long, the outer hairs somewhat shorter. 



The above details accord well with Mr. Bentham's description. The authors of the 

 •Genera Plantarum' (ii. p. 727), however, regard this plant as belonging to Mandevilla ; 

 but if we compare one with the other it wUl be seen that they are utterly at variance 

 in almost every character, so that this view must be discarded. 



