BENCOMIA. 
241 
nodding, lax downwards and mostly branched or compound. — 
WB. ii. 11. Poterium caudatum “ Ait. Hort. Kew. iii. 354 j” 
BM. t. 2341 (female pi.) ; DO. ii. 594. — Shr. per Mad. reg. 
2, rrr. 
Male pi . — A single ex. only, in the upper part of the grounds 
or chestnut-woods of the Quinta de Prazer below the Mount 
Church, formerly occupied by the late Robert Page, Esq. ; cult. 
April, May. — A shr. about 5 or 6 ft. high, with long sparing 
straggling naked thickish very brittle branches full of pith, 
covered with a shining even greyish outer skin cracking or 
peeling off, leaving them cinnamon or chesnut-brown beneath, 
each terminating in a large thick tuft or rose of 1. The older 
branches are quite woody and still' but remarkably brittle, snap- 
ping short off with the slightest force from their large quantity 
of pith. New shoots, petioles and racliis of 1., and ped. densely 
villose or shaggy with long white somewhat woolly hairs. L. 
not deciduous, but when dry and withered continuing in thick 
masses several years below the fresh ann. tufts of gr. 1. at the 
ends of the branches. Base of petioles dilated sheathing broad 
and membranous, pale or whitish, fringed with hairs, short and 
ending abruptly upwards on each side in a small narrow laci- 
niate stipulary lft., with several pairs of similar stipulary lfts. 
close together downwards, quite towards the base of the sheath- 
ing portion and apart from the upper terminal pair ; all di- 
stinguished from the true lfts. by their pale colour, narrowness, 
and deeply jagged laciniate or lacerated outline. Lfts. in 4-6 
mostly 5 pairs with an odd one, the lowest smallest and remote, 
all ovate-lanceolate equally serrate glabrescent or nearly or 
quite smooth and dark shining gr. above ; beneath pale whitish 
opake and villose-pubescent, the hairs short close and inclining 
or almost adpressed, with prominent equidistant nerves. L. 
6-12 in. long ; lfts. in. long, in. broad. Spikes on 
axillary solitary erect stout villose stalks aggregate in the ter- 
minal tufts of 1., and mostly branched or compound, producing 
below the main spike several smaller lateral spikes ; the main 
spike cylindrical, as thick as the little finger and 4-6 in. long, 
the end drooping in bud, mostly erect altogether in ff ., of a pale 
light gr. more or less pale ochraceous according to the state of 
the anthers. El. densely crowded upwards, lax or remote down- 
wards ; bracts 3 rather large and conspicuous (exactly as figured 
in the female pi. BM., t. 2341) ovate-acuminate spreading silky- 
villose. Sep. pale gr. with whitish edges, broadly oval or 
roundish, concave at first, soon strongly revolute instead of 
reflexed, as rightly figured 1. c. in the female pi., quite smooth. 
Anth. about 40 large roundish and flattened, pale ochraceous. 
Pollen issuing like a cloud of dust when the spikes are first 
shaken. Fil. extremely fine and delicate. 
The above description was taken in April 1831 from a shr. 
