286 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
which is secreted a Hmpid fluid. When the corolla falls away, 
the involucral leaves close firmly over the calyx, and do not open 
out, nor does the contained fluid dry up, until the globose roseate 
berry, the size of a pea, is quite ripe. Another singular character 
is the syngenesious anthers, with a minute pore at the apex of 
each cell, through which not a grain of pollen ever escapes, as I 
satisfied myself by repeated observation ; fertilisation being effected 
through the agency of minute beetles, which abound in the flowers, 
and eat away the inner edge of the anther cells, probably part of 
the pollen also. ... 
The remaining Melastomacese offer nothing noticeable, except 
the scarcity of Miconia, the South American genus most abundant 
in species and individuals, and occurring from the plain to the 
limits of true forest on the hills. I gathered but one species, 
which I refer doubtfully to Miconia. 
MyrtacecE, i. — Two or three Myrciae, which are rather scarce. 
A fine Eugenia, called " Arrayan " (but different from the Arrayan 
of Quito), with very hard, durable wood, and exfoliating bark, 
grows to a tree of 60 feet or more. Two Psidia are frequent ; 
the one (on the beaches by the Rio San Antonio) seems the 
common Guayaba of the temperate region ; the other is a timber 
tree called Guayaba del Monte, which, although of very slow 
growth, ultimately reaches the dimensions of the Arrayan, and 
yields equally valuable timber. 
BarringtoniacecB. — A Grias, with the characteristic coma of 
large elongato -lanceolate leaves, seems to reach its upper limit 
at about 3500 feet. . . . 
LoasacecE^ i. — A weak branching herb with small white flowers, 
probably an Ancyrostemon. There grows also in the cane-fields 
a virulently stinging Loasa, which is too common a weed on the 
eastern side, at about 5000 feet. This order, quite absent from 
the Amazonian plain, accompanies woody vegetation from about 
1200 feet up to 11,000 feet at the least, and many of the species 
are climbers. 
Umbelliferce, 4.— Whereof three are Hydrocotyles, one of them 
departing from the habit usual to the South American species, 
in putting forth erect stems of 3 to 12 inches from a trailing 
rhizome. There is also a fourth Hydrocotyle i^H. pusilla^ A. Rich.), 
distinguished by its minute leaves and scarlet fruit, which I 
gathered at the same elevation on the Andes of Maynas. I have 
nowhere seen such abundance of Hydrocotyles in the forest as 
at Limon, where they constitute a notable proportion of the 
ground vegetation. In moist, open situations, on the higher 
grounds, they are common enough. ... 
AraliacecB. — Two species of the fine genus Panax are not 
uncommon. 
Rubiacece^ 19. — I think I gathered every plant of this order I 
