V'uica.] APOCYNACE^E. 307 



lodge, but no doubt oriffinally planted. In a remote part of Centurion's copse, 

 near Bembridge, Miss More. 



W. Med. — Truly wild and profusely abundant in a copse called Bottomjrroiind, 

 a little W. of ToUecombe farm, between Carishrouke and Shorwell, and ripening 

 plenty of seed. In a little wood near W. Cowes, Miss G. Kitderbee ! also at 

 Nuinvell, in the " Ladies Walk," but perha|is not wild there. 



i?oo( (rhizoma) knotty, emitting copious long, slender, brownish white, ranch- 

 branched and creeping fibres. Stems numerous, prostrate and trailing, often here 

 and there rooting, the sterile shoots from about 1 to 3 feet in length, simple or 

 slightly branched, leafy, hard, tough, rigid and somewhat woody below, smooth, 

 glabrous and shining, terete, with a slight alternating furrow on each side, naked 

 below. Leaves opposite, evergreen, truly elliptical or elliptical-lanceolale, al)Out 

 2 inches or less in length and 1 inch wide, those towards the bottom and sunjmit of 

 the stems smaller than the leaves of the centre, of a very firm dry texture, deep dark 

 green above, especially when old and in shady situations, brighter and paler when 

 young, and in more open places somewhat yellowish green, occasionally, as in 

 gardens, variegated with white ; much paler beneath, quite glabrous along their 

 minutely deflexed margins, more or less acutely pointed bnt not acuminate, taper- 

 ing below. into the extremely short semiterete petioles, which do not exceed 2 or 3 

 lines in length and are very minute and slightly ciliated, the midrib and lateral 

 veins sharp, filiform and prominent above. Stipules none. Flowers few, scent- 

 less, on the span-long erect or reclining shoots of the current year about I to 1^ 

 inch in diameter, of a somewhat pale or dilute purplish blue varying to a reddish 

 or violet colour, sometimes, especially in gardens, white, where also a variety with 

 full or double blossoms is not uncommon. Peduncles solitary, axillary or some- 

 times opposite, erect in blossom, mostly shorter than the leaves, terete, single- 

 flowered. Calyx small, hardly Jrd the length of the tube, deeply cleft into 5 

 oblong-lanceolate, perfectly glabrous (not ciliated) segments, that are single- 

 ribbed, erect and somewhat fleshy, scarcely pointed, nearly equal. The limb of 

 the corolla deeply cut into 5 or sometimes 4 oblique, flatly spreading, cuneato-rhom 

 boidal, truncate, membranous segments, with rounded corners that are much 

 longer than the funnel-shaped, slightly furrowed and fleshy tube, which is densely 

 villous in the centre just above the stamens with a ring of white connivent hairs 

 that close over the stamens as these last do over the stigma, the mouth pentago- 

 nal, with a shallow, 2-lobed, crested, whitish process between each segment ana- 

 logous to the crown in Nerium &c., combined downwards into as many pale plaits 

 or angles of the lube. Stamens inserted below the middle of the tube ; filaments 

 short, greenish, curiously jointed or geuiculate at a very acute angle on their 

 small columnar or bracket-like hairy base, beyond which they soon dilate into an 

 obovate nectariferous concavity, bearing the erect 2-celled anther, the cells oblong, 

 distant on the under and exterior margins of the broad, membranaceous, rounded 

 connnectivum, which is villous at the back and converges into the stigma, the 

 entire set nearly closing the tube of the corolla ; pollen of many pellucid globules, 

 cohering in masses, deposited from the incumbent anther-cells on the peltate disk 

 beneath the stigma, which is not orange-coloured as in V. major. Style terete, 

 enlarged gradually upwards and bearing a thin, circular, discoid gland grooved 

 like a pulley, ciliated and nectariferous, the upper side of which is continued into 

 a very shoit, stout, tapering column carrying the peltate stigma, that consists of 

 beautifully white radiating hairs forming a dense circular tuft, not 5-angled or 

 plaited as in the other species. Ovary partly embraced by the base of the calyx, 

 compressed, 2-lobed by a lateral furrow, against which is applied on either side an 

 oblong, greenish yellow, nectariferous gland as long as the ovary. Follicles sel- 

 dom produced either in this country or on the Continent, glabrous, geminate, 

 occasionally connate, mostly unequal in size, one of the pair either much reduced 

 or abortive, parallel or diverging, from about half an inch to an inch in length, 

 oblong or sublanceolate, sulcate-striate and tereti-angular, more or less beaked, 

 the apex straight or a little curved ; bursting along their inner side. Seeds one 

 or two, elliptical-oblong, subcylindrical, with a deep channel along one side, 

 formed by the inflexion of the pale cartilaginous albumen upon the line of 



