252 
RHYNCOPERA PUNCTATA. 
and a half long, nearly the thickness of a 
child's arm, cylindrical, dilated, amplexicaule, 
commonly purplish, and, as well as the leaves 
and flower-scapes, covered with short conic 
herbaceous spines. This stalk is terminated 
by the leaf, which is about three feet across ; 
it is very thick, coriaceous, somewhat palmate, 
heart-shaped, or notched at the base, five- 
nerved or veined, and five-lobed ; the veins 
are dichotomous or forked, and the lobes bi- 
lobed, being doubly dentated at the margins. 
The young leaves are all of a fine purple red 
colour, which partially disappears as they get 
older. The floral scapes are short, (from 10 
to 15 inches,) and issue from the axils of the 
leaves. From the middle to the summit they 
are studded with hei-maphrodite sessile flowers; 
they are not conspicuous, but from their 
number and mode of insertion have rather a 
fine effect, when in bloom. 
In its native country, Chili and Peru, it is 
found growing in humid places, and the na- 
tives are said to drink a decoction of its leaves. 
After having taken off the thick epidermis, 
they eat the leaf-stalks, both raw and cooked. 
Dyers [in Chili and Peru ?] cut the roots in 
slices, and, after boiling them a certain time, 
obtain a fine and lasting black colour. Tan- 
ners also use them very extensively in dress- 
ing hides, to which they impart a degree of 
flexibility not obtained by any other means. 
When it is considered that the temperature of 
Chili and Peru is somewhat similar to that of 
the centre of Europe, there can be little doubt 
that Ounnera scahra will be best placed in 
the open air, especially in maritime countries, 
such as England ; or in warm and humid 
places in Grermany or France, but particularly 
in Italy and Spain. It is the Gunnera chi- 
lensis of Lamarck. 
RHYNCOPERA PUNCTATA. 
Uliynco'pera 'punctata, Earsten (spotted- 
flowered Rhyncopera). — Orchidaceae § Ma- 
laxeae-Pleurothallidas. 
The numerous blossoms of this curious 
orchid look almost as much like little spotted 
flies crawling up the thread-like stalks, as 
they do like flowers ; the dull tints of their 
colouring in some degree favour the deceptive 
appearance. Nothwithstanding this compari- 
son, it may be called a pretty little plant, for 
its slender flov/er spikes hang in very graceful 
curves around the tufted masses in which the 
species naturally grows. Its height is not 
more than five or six inches. The simple, 
white, small roots, spread and adhere to the 
bark of trees. The stems, which are from 
two to three inches long, are round, smooth, of 
a fine green colour, and issue from a long tubu- 
lar brownish membranaceous sheath. They 
bear at their summits each a fleshy or some- 
what leathery elliptical flexuose leaf, which is 
notched or bidentate at the apex, flatly keeled 
underneath, from an inch to an inch and a 
half broad, and from two to three inches long. 
At the bases of these sessile leaves issue leafy 
linear lanceolate sheaths, an inch long, at the 
axils of which are produced simple many- 
flowered racemes of flowers, on slender, pen- 
dent, smooth peduncles. The flowers have a 
reddish white ground-colour, and are spotted 
with purple ; the sepals and petals are small 
and narrow ; the labelluiu is rather shorter 
than the sepals, yellowish-red and red spotted, 
ligulate, and turned in or enveloping the 
