784 PROFESSOR BALFOUR ON THE IPECACUAN PLANT. 



a slight variation, although conspicuous in the general aspect of the plants. 

 The leaves in the Hookerian plant are firmer in texture, somewhat coriaceous, 

 their form is elliptical or oval, apex rather blunt, and margin wavy. These 

 are represented in Plate XXXI. fig. 1, and Plate XXXII. fig. 1. In the Rio 

 Janeiro plants the leaves are thinner and more delicate in texture ; the form is 

 rather elliptico-lanceolate, the apex pointed, and the margin less wavy ; in the 

 young state the leaves are fringed with hairs ; the plant grows more freely, and 

 is less shrubby. This form is seen in Plate XXXII. fig. 7. As the plants get 

 older, the difference in form and texture is less marked. 



The stipules (Plate XXXII. fig. 8) are conspicuous, interpetiolary, opposite, 

 united at the base, and are cut at the upj>er part into long narrow segments. 

 At the base of the stipules there are several ovate-lanceolate glands (Plate 

 XXXII. fig. 9). 



The flowers are, in capitula, surrounded by a four-leaved involucre, and are 

 supported on a stalk which is about an inch in length, at first erect, and then 

 bent from its base downwards (Plate XXXI. fig. 4). Each capitulum con- 

 tains from ten to twelve flowers, which are white, sessile, and sweet-scented. 

 The calyx is superior, persistent, its limb cut into five divisions (Plate XXXI. 

 fig. 5). Corolla, funnel-shaped, with a cylindrical tube and a limb divided into 

 five broadly-ovate, pointed segments (Plate XXXI. fig. 5). Stamens, five, 

 inserted at the upper part of the corolla, shorter than the limb (Plate XXXI. 

 figs. 5, 6, 7, a). Pollen roundish (Plate XXXII. fig. 14). Pistil, consisting 

 of an inferior bilocular ovary, with an ovule in each division ; stigma bifid 

 (Plate XXXI. figs. 5, 6, 7, c). The stamens and pistil are found to vary in 

 length in different flowers. The plant is thus dimorphic. In the figure 

 given by Sir W. Hooker in the "Botanical Magazine," the stamens are long 

 and the style short. This character is seen in the specimens propagated from 

 the plant in the Botanic Garden (Plate XXXI. fig. 5). In the plants produced 

 from the Rio Janeiro specimens, two forms of flower are seen, viz., one with 

 a short style and long stamens, as in the Hookerian plant, and another with a 

 long style and short stamens. These two forms are seen in Plate XXXI. figs. 

 6 and 7, where a marks the stamens, and b the style. It is only within the last 

 year that fruit has been produced on the plants by artificial fertilisation. In 

 the Hookerian plant, Mr Lindsay, the house-foreman and propagator, fertilised 

 the pistil with pollen from the same flower. Fruit was produced, but not so 

 abundantly as in the dimorphic forms when fertilised by applying pollen from 

 the long stamens of one flower to the long pistil of another. 



In Plate XXXII. fig. 1, a representation is given of a stem (a) bearing 

 elliptical wavy leaves (b, b) with short petioles, and a cluster of fruit (c) borne 

 on a peduncle, which is bent downwards. The bending of the peduncle takes 

 place after flowering, and gradually increases during fruiting, until it forms a 



