MARCETIA DECUSSATA — CROSS-LEAVED MARCETIA. 
Class VIII. OCTANDRIA.— Order I. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, MELASTOMACEvE. 
Character op the Genus Marcetia. Tube of the calyx, oblong or cylindrical, with four lanceolate 
lobes. Petals -4, Oval (ovate) acute. Stamens 8, equal (subequal); anthers with two tubercles at the base, 
oblong, opening by a single pore. Ovarium free, glabrous. Style filiform. Stigma minute. Capsule 4- 
valvular, 4-celled, nearly equal to the tube of the calyx. Seeds cochleate. 
Description op the Species, Marcetia Decussata. Shrub erect (nine inches high in the 
specimen described, but from native specimens evidently attaining the size of a small bush.) Stem much 
branched, round; dark brown, cracked, and exfoliating; branches erect; twigs four-sided, glanduloso-pu- 
bescent. Leaves (3| lines long) ovate, spreading, mucronulate, 3-nerved, pubescent on both sides, also with 
short tomentum below, dark green above, paler below, entire and revolute in the edges, middle-rib chan- 
nelled in front, prominent behind. Flowers small, solitary, axillary, on pedicels shorter than the leaves, 
about the middle jointed, and there having two opposite leaf-like bracts, above this point turgid when in 
fruit. Perhaps it would be more correct to consider all below the joint a short axillary branch, with two 
leaves at the apex, and a terminal ebracteate single-flowered peduncle. Calyx urceolate, glanduloso-pu- 
bescent, without bracteoles, or rarely a small one, 4-toothed, teeth spreading, subulate, more than half the 
length of the tube. Corolla 4-petalled, spreading between the teeth of the calyx, and fully three times as 
long as them, pale rose-coloured, slightly blotched, ovato-lanceolate, with a small deflected mucro, inserted 
into the throat of the calyx, glabrous. Stamens 8, inserted into the throat of the calyx, alternately oppo- 
site to and between the petals ; filaments subequal, erect, scarcely inclining to one side of the flower, gla- 
brous, colourless, equal in length to the petals, but as these are spreading, the stamens project far beyond 
the corolla, jointed at about two-thirds of the height, and there when in bud folded forwards ; anthers at 
first orange-coloured, afterwards yellow, about half as long as the filaments, slightly declined, without 
crenatures in front, opening hy one terminal pore, having at the base two small rounded auricles, which are 
rather larger in the longer stamens. Style filiform, rather longer than the stamens, and slightly deflected 
to the opposite side of the flower from them. Stigma minute. Germen superior, ovate, truncated, nearly 
as long as the calyx, with eight small teeth on its apex, 4-celled. Ovules very numerous, attached to central 
placenta, cochleate. 
Popular and Geographical Notice. The genus Marcetia w r as established by Decandolle, and 
the species, believed to be all from Brazil. A plant believed to be one of his species, has been found by 
Schomburgk to extend to British Guiana. We believe Mr.Bentham has inadvertently referred to Gardner’s 
Specimens, No. 1288, as identical with Schomburgk’s No. 1040. The desquamation of the cuticle of the 
stem and branches,and a remarkable enlargement of the fruit-bearing pedicels above the bracts in Gardner’s 
Plant, are not observed in Schomburgk’s. We have no doubt of Gardner’s, No. 1288, being identical with 
the plant now described. Several of the species of Marcetia grow at considerable elevations on the moun- 
tains ; the one now described is found in Bahia, at an elevation of 2000 feet. It is a small neat looking 
shrub, flowering freely, and during a considerable period. 
Introduction; Where grown; Culture. The species described, the first in cultivation in Bri- 
tain, was raised at Mr. Cunningham’s nursery, Comely Bank, near Edinburgh, from seeds sent from Brazil, 
by Mr. Gardner. It has been kept in the stove, and one plant placed lately in the greenhouse, stands there 
in October without injury. It has required no particular management, and has flowered in September and 
October abundantly. 
Derivation of the Name. Marcetia in honour of Dr. Marcet, to whom we owe some extremely 
interesting observations on the effects of poisons on vegetables. 
