A Revision of the Geophilous Species of Peperomia, 
with some additional Notes on their Morphology 
and Seedling Structure. 
BY 
ARTHUR W. HILL, M.A. 
Fellow and Dean of King s College , Cambridge , University Lee hirer in Botany. 
With Plate XV. 
T HE discovery of the seedlings of certain of the geophilous Peperomias, 
which have been described in the last volume of the Annals of 
Botany x , has necessitated a re-examination of all the bulbous species of the 
genus. The confusion existing between the Peruvian and Mexican repre- 
sentatives has been referred to, and some attempt has already been made 
to disentangle and distinguish the various species 2 . As it was impossible 
to clear up the various points of systematic interest from the material in our 
British herbaria, a visit has been paid to the herbaria at Geneva for this 
purpose. 
I must here express my thanks to M. C. de Candolle for his kindness 
in allowing me to work in his Herbarium, where, in addition to his own 
collection, I was able to see all the material from the Berlin Herbarium, 
including the plants recently collected by Weberbauer and Fiebrig. He 
has further very generously allowed me to describe the new species, and 
to write this account of the geophilous forms, although he himself is at work 
on a new monograph of the genus. The Boissier and De Lessert Herbaria 
were also visited, and I am much indebted for the kindness and attention 
which I received there. I must also add a word of thanks to Dr. Stapf for 
the kind help he has given me in connexion with this revision. As the 
principal result of this work, a classification of the geophilous Peperomias 
is put forward on a new basis, namely, on the character of the under- 
ground tuber, which affords not only a very ready method of recognizing 
the plants from particular regions, but also appears to indicate, to a certain 
extent, the natural relationships of the various species. 
The final separation of the species is effected mainly by the characters 
of the fruits, as in Dahlstedt’s monograph 3 , and in some cases the venation, 
1 Hill in Ann. Bot., vol. xx, p. 395. 2 Ibid., pp. 396-8. 
3 Dahlst. in Kong. Svenska Vet. Akad. Hand. Bd. 33, No. 2, 1900. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXI. No. LXXXII. April, 1907.] 
M 
