Refugium Botanicwn.) jdugust, 1868. 
TAB. 40. 
Natural Order PIPERACEA. 
Genus Peperomia, Ruiz d Pavon. 
P. macnoLi#Foria (A. Dietr. Sp. tom. i.) Caulibus ramosis robustis 
ascendentibus glabris, foliis sparsis alternis magnis crassis obovatis 
obtusis glabris, deorsum in petiolum crassum profunde canalicula- 
tum attenuatis, nervo medio crasso, venis lateralibus primariis 4—5, 
amentis ex axillis foliorum pedunculatis magnis, floribus confertis, 
ovariis ovatis apice stigmatiferis, baccis immersis rostellatis. — 
Miquel, Syst. Peper. p. 97. Piper magnoliafolium, Jacq. Ic. t. 218. 
A native of the West Indies. 
Stems almost woody at the base, considerably branched, pro- 
cumbent or ascending, the principal branches four to six lines 
thick, roundish, succulent in texture, quite naked, green, more or 
less tinged with red. Leaves solitary, alternate, ascending, ob- 
ovate, five or six inches long when well-developed by two and a 
half to three inches broad two-thirds of the way up, the point 
blunt, the lower half narrowed gradually into a short thick deeply 
channelled semiterete succulent petiole, the texture of the leaf 
unusually thick and succulent but firm, both surfaces quite naked, 
the upper one a dark shining green, the lower paler, the midrib 
and four or five oblique veins on each side conspicuous. Spikes 
six or seven inches long, not more than two lines thick when in 
flower, on succulent peduncles coloured like the stems, two or 
three inches long from the axils of the leaves. Flowers very 
minute, in close whorls round the spikes of about eight flowers 
each. DBracts short-stalked, fleshy, glabrous, roundish. Anthers 
oblong, bright yellow, dehiscing longitudinally down the centre, 
slightly exceeding the ovate ovary. Berry ovate, brown, immersed, 
patent, half a line long.—J. G. B. 
This fine species of Peperomia I obtained from Belize. It 
should be grown in a moist stove, potted in a mixture of turfy 
peat and Sphagnum. It is a free-flowering plant, and its fine 
glossy leaves have a very pleasing effect.—W. W. S. 
