Refugium Botanicum.] [ September, 1869. 
TAB. 153. 
Natural Order F'icomDE&. 
Tribe MoLiuGinE&. 
Genus PHarnaceum, Linn. 
Sect. Hypertexis (H. Meyer). Stamina hypogyna, 12—30, libera vel 
deorsum in cupulam brevem vel phalanges 8—5 connexa; semina 
lenticularia vel pyriformia. 
P. acrpum (Hook. fil. Ic. Plant. t. 1025). Perenne, glaberrimum, glau- 
cum, caule ramoso, foliis oppositis et subfasciculatis cylindraceis vel 
facie complanatis anguste oblanceolatis, pedunculis elongatis, flori- 
bus umbellatis, sepalis ineequalibus exterioribus viridibus, inte- 
rioribus orbiculatis membranaceis petaloideis, disco inconspicuo, 
staminibus 12—20, basi liberis, stylis 5. 
A native of the sands of the sea-shore in St. Helena, where, 
according to Burchell, it is called “ Longwood Samphire.” 
An erect copiously-branched shrub under a foot high. The 
old stems quite woody; the branches terete, herbaceous, like the 
rest of the plant quite glabrous, glaucous-gray with a tinge of 
red. Leaves in opposite pairs or subfasciculate, so fleshy in 
texture as to be nearly cylindrical, very glaucous, horizontal or a 
little drooping, the lower ones twelve to fifteen lines long by an 
eighth of an inch broad three-quarters of the way up. Peduncles 
terminal or produced from the nodes, ascending, one to four 
inches long. Flowers three to nine in an umbel; the pedicels 
finally six to eight lines long, subtended by a whorl of minute 
linear bracts. Calyx three to four lines deep, the sepals much 
imbricated and unequal, the outer ones oblong, obtuse, all green 
and fleshy or with a narrow white membranous border, the inner 
ones orbicular and petaloid, green only in the centre or the inner- 
most not all. Stamens twelve to twenty from an inconspicuous 
hypogynous disk. Styles and cells of the capsule five. 
Tab. 153.—1, front view of flower; 2, back view; 3, stamen; 4, pistil; 
5, horizontal section of ovary: all magnified.—J. G. B. 

I have grown this plant from seeds kindly supplied to me by 
my friend Dr. J. D. Hooker, who obtained them from St. Helena. 
The plant is interesting from its hmited and peculiar locality, 
being, as far as at present known, only found wild in that island. 
It thrives in a very dry greenhouse, potted in sandy loam and 
peat, with plenty of drainage. Its delicately white flowers and 
pale glaucous-green leaves give the plant a peculiar and attractive 
aspect.— W. W.S. 
