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286 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
which is secreted a limpid fluid. When the corolla falls away,
the involucral leaves close firmly over the calyx, and do not open
out, nor does the contained fluid dry up, until the globose roseate
berry, the size of a pea, is quite ripe. Another singular character
is the syngenesious anthers, with a minute pore at the apex of
each cell, through which not a grain of pollen ever escapes, as I
satisfied myself by repeated observation ;
fertilisation being effected
through the agency of minute beetles, which abound in the flowers,
and eat away the inner edge of the anther cells, probably part of
the pollen also. . . .
The remaining Melastomace^e offer nothing noticeable, except
the scarcity of Miconia, the South American genus most abundant
in species and individuals, and occurring from the plain to the
limits of true forest on the hills. I gathered but one species,
which I refer doubtfully to Miconia.
Myrtaace, i. Two or three Myrcite, which are rather scarce.
A fine Eugenia, called "Arrayan "
(but different from the Arrayan
of Quito), with very hard, durable wood, and exfoliating bark,
grows to a tree of 60 feet or more. Two Psidia are frequent ;
the one (on the beaches by the Rio San Antonio) seems the
common Guayaba of the temperate region the other is a timber
;
tree called Guayaba del Monte, which, although of very slow
growth, ultimately reaches the dimensions of the Arrayan, and
yields equally valuable timber.
BarriiigtoniaceiE. A Grias, with the characteristic coma of
large elongato -lanceolate leaves, seems to reach its upper limit
at about 3500 feet. . . .
Loasacece, i. A weak branching herb with small white flowers,
probably an Ancyrostemon. There grows also in the cane-fields
a virulently stinging Loasa, which is too common a weed on the
eastern side, at about 5000 feet. This order, quite absent from
the Amazonian plain, accompanies woody vegetation from about
1200 feet up to 11,000 feet at the least, and many of the species
are climbers.
UmbeUifene, 4.
Whereof three are Hydrocotyles, one of them
departing from the habit usual to the South American species,
in putting forth erect stems of 3 to 12 inches from a trailing
rhizome. There is also a fourth Hydrocotyle (H.pusilla, A. Rich.),
distinguished by its minute leaves and scarlet fruit, which I
gathered at the same elevation on the Andes of Maynas. I have
nowhere seen such abundance of Hydrocotyles in the forest as
at Limon, where they constitute a notable proportion of the
ground vegetation. In moist, open situations, on the higher
grounds, they are common . . .
enough.
Araliacece. Two species of the fine genus Panax are not
uncommon.
19.
I think I gathered every plant of this order I