of 1700 toises upon the Andes, along with the genera Alstonia, 
Escallonia and Wintera. The greater number, however, are 
found in the temperate regions of those mountains, at a height 
of between 300 and 900 toises. ‘There they adhere sometimes 
to the trunks of trees, along with various species of Epiden- 
drum: and Dendrobium, and sometimes to the perpendicular 
faces of rocks which overhang the water. ‘The individuals be- 
longing to the genus Piper are, as this learned traveller adds, 
separated from the Peperomic by this mark, that wherever the 
latter were observed upon the Andes, the former were found to — 
be at a greater distance from the limits of perpetual snow, by 
as much as 200 toises. . 
Of the genus Peperomia alone, M. DE HumBoupr enu- 
merates no fewer than 44 species, the most of which are new. 
United with the genus Piper, as it stands in RoEMER and 
ScHULTZ’s Syst. Veget. its species amount to 225, of which 77 — | 
were first discovered by MM. HumBoupt and BoNPLAND. 
The present individual is also one found by them on the trunks. 
of trees, in moist and uncultivated places, between Caraccas 
and Rio Guayare, at an elevation of 460 toises, flowering’ in 
January. JAcQUIN also states the Caraccas as its native place 
of growth. Introduced into our gardens, according to Mr 
Hawortu, in 1802. | | 
It is an elegant plant, beautifully edged and dotted with 
red beneath. With us it flowers in September and October, 
and is easily cultivated in pots filled with light soil, and kept 
in the stove. | 
As the seeds of this genus do not appear to ripen in this 
country, I have, in order to illustrate still more fully its gene- 
ric character, copied the dissections of the fruit from the beau- 
tiful drawings of RicHarp, which are published in the 1st vo- 
lume of Humsoupt and Kuntru’s Nov. Gen. et Sp. Plant. 
The embryo does not appear in that figure, but this part is dis- 
tinctly expressed in a species of Piper on the same plate, and 
is of so dubious a character, that, while the greater number of 
botanists consider it to be dicotyledonous, MM. Ricwarp and 
Kuntu look upon it as monocotyledonous. It consists of a 
minute pouch, enclosing a two-lobed body, which M. KuntTH 
denominated the plumule, while MirBEL and_others call it the 
entire embryo. A structure very nearly similar is found in the 
Nympheacee, concerning whose classification in the Natural 
System the same difference of opinion has existed. 
Fig. 1. Portion of a spadix with flower. Fig. 2. Back view of a single flower. 
Fig. 3. Pistil. Fig. 4. Stamen. Fig. 5. Berry. Fig. 6. The same with 
the upper part of the pericarp removed. Fig. 7. The same cut through 
vertically—All more or less magnified. The last three figures copied from 
RICHARD. 
