| Description | Flora of Peru. by J. Francis Macbride. Chicago, Ill. Field Museum of Natural History, [1941] v.13: pt.4: no.1 (1941): Page 181- 202 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/19800 Slender herb, 3-6 dm. high, branching at base, green. Leaves strongly asymmetric, transversely ovate, cordate at base, acuminate at one side, 5-11 cm. long, subpinnate-nerved, shallowly lobed, serrate, ciliate, subdensely pilose above, petioles 1-4 cm. long, stipules persistent, narrowly ovate, serrulate, ciliate, 5-7 mm. long. Cymes axillary, laxly 2-5-flowered, peduncle 2-3 cm. long. Bracts minute, ovate, lacerate. Pedicels 5- 10 mm. long. Staminate tepals 2 or 4, the outer ones suborbicular, 3-4 mm. long. Stamens free, 8--20, anthers elliptic, the connective produced. Pistillate tepals 5, 2-4 mm. long. Styles 3, 2-parted, the stigmatic tissue linear, spiral, continuous, placentae very variable even in the same ovary, simple or unevenly 2-parted. Capsule 6-8 mm. long, emarginate at base, wings subdeltoid, obtuse, unequal, the largest 7-9 mm. wide. (B. Pavoniana. F.M. Neg. 20808); Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden. New York: The Garden, 1900- v. 8 1952-1954: Page: 36-40 http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/150964 Santiago-Zamora (''Oriente''): low plants on bank; stems red; leaves pale green above, paler below; peduncles bright red; perianths of both male and female flowers white; fruit pale yellow-cream with greenish tint, brown when mature; uplands just south of Rio Chupianza, valley of the Rio Upano, from the Rio Paute north ca. 17 km. to the Chupiangas, 1,950-2,200 ft., E-1442; The Botanical register: London: Printed for James Ridgway 1815-1828. v. 4 (1818): Plate 284, Text http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/9040 The figure of the species and Mr. Dryander's masterly description in the Linnean transactions, are both taken from a dried plant, a circumstance that will account for some slight difference in the appearance it makes in the figure here given, especially when it is recollected that the whole vegetable is succulent and tender. Our specimen, when we obtained it for description, was not in a state to induce us to attempt to add any further particulars to Mr. Dryander's account; the small bracts had all fallen off; and the flowers withered. We observed that the upper stipules. were near an inch in length, oblong, with a longish subulate point, membranous or less succulent than the leaves, the lower ones. smaller and more tapered. This extensive genus, or natural order, as it is made by some botanists, is among the many ·whose affinity with other· vegetable groups has not yet been satisfactorily demonstrated; it has therefore no settled place in any of the natural systems. The species are truly monecious, having flowers of two different configurations mixed together in the same bunch, those of one kind destined to bear the stamens alone, those of the other placed on a germen supporting the pistils only. The latter are of five petals instead of four, and had not expanded in our specimen. The title of humilis was applied under a false impression, the species having been described and determined from a yearling plant, before it was known that it would survive another season, and grow up to the height of two feet. The whole genus is tropical, and belongs chiefly to Asia and America. No species has been found on the continent of Africa, though three are native of the adjacent islands. The present comes from the West Indies, where it was observed by Mr. Alex. Anderson. It w first cultivated in this country in 1788, by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, of the Hammersmith nursery. Jussieu, in a summary of the general habit of the species, characterizes them as plants that belong naturally to lakes, some few suffrutescent, but the greater portion herbaceous with a leafy stem or else a naked scape. The whole genus has, something both of the habit and taste of the Sorrels. We have omitted in our synonymy the BEGONIA humilis of Bonpland, the stem being roughly furred in that, and the foliage deeply indented; it seems to be either the hirsuta of this genus, or a species more nearly allied to that than to the present, the inflorescence differs also in some respects. |
