31 YET US 
267 
or 4th year whilst quite small, producing afterwards an abun- 
dant and never-failing sometimes double crop. 
2. Myetus L. 
Myrtle. 
1. M. communis L. Murta. 
V ery smooth ; 1. ovate or lanceolate acute coriaceous shining ; 
ped. solitary 1-flowered about as long as the 1. with a pair of 
deciduous linear bractlets at the base of the fl. ; cal. 5-fid ; 
pet. 5; stam. many. — DC. iii. 239 ; Desf. i. 391; Koch 276. 
a. latifolia (Common or Broad-leaved Myrtle) ; 1. 1-2 in. 
long, the upper lanceolate opposite, lower ovate subaltemate, 
all distinct or subremote and acuminate ; ped. long filiform. 
Subv. 1 ; ped. not longer than 1. ; berries black globose. — 
M. communis e. lusitanica L. ! ; DC. 1. c. M. communis Buch ! 
197. no. 373 ; Brot. ii. 246 ; Fl. Gr. t. 475. — Shr. or small tr. 
Mad. reg. 2, 1 (upper part), f . Dry sunny rocks and slopes, 
chiefly on the sides of ravines. Banks of the Curral dos Ro- 
meiros, of the Serra d’Agua and of the Cayados Ravine beyond 
Camacha, forming in some parts thickets with Heath and Lau- 
rels. Two or three miles up the Machico Valley abundant, and 
becoming tr., several of which stand by the roadside about a 
mile above S. Christovo. Several fine and very old tr. also 
grow on the edge of the seacliffs (about 900 ft. high) at a place 
called Larano, E. of Porto da Cruz. March-Oct., but at most 
seasons. — Generally a low bush 3-6 ft. high, but occasionally a 
tr. with a straight gnarled and knobby st. as thick as a man’s 
thigh or more (5-10 in. diam.) with a rough greyish here and 
there cinnamon-reddish bark and bushy head, 20-25 ft. high. 
Foliage evergreen of a dark bright shining gr., the young 1. and 
shoots reddish. Smaller branches cinnamon-brown straight 
slender but stiff erect virgate. L. when bruised finely aro- 
matic, the lower ovate twice, the upper lanceolate 2^-3 times, 
as long as broad. Ped. filiform, about f the length of 1., soli- 
tary but often, before its fr. is ripe, a 2nd fl., with shorter ped., 
is developed from the same axil. Pet. white inside, reddish or 
crimson outside especially in bud, concave reflexed. Sep. 
broadly half-ovate large short persistent, at first obtuse, after- 
wards acute, in fr. erect or spreading. Berries black globose 
about 3 lines diam. flatly umbilicate at top, dry and uneatable. 
Seeds 3-6 rather large flattened subreniform hard pale yellow- 
ish shining. 
The use of the young leafy shoots and twigs for strewing the 
streets of Funchal at processions has doubtless caused its dis- 
