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2 9o NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP.
few long sarmentose leafy branches. The leaves of each pair
are very unequal, and the smaller one sometimes obsolete ; the
larger one is long, lance-shaped, and, while the rest of the leaf
is green, the apex and sometimes part of the margin are
stained of a deep red, so as to resemble a lance dipped in blood,
whence the native name "punta de lanza." The axillary flowers
are comparatively inconspicuous, and they are partially concealed
by large red or blood-stained bracts ; they seem to vary considerably
in structure in the different species, but I have scarcely
examined them, and cannot, therefore, refer these plants witrr
certainty to their proper genus. Another group, whereof two
species were seen and gathered, has the long tubular corolla subtended
by pinnati-partiti sepals, which are so densely beset with
stout jointed hairs as to resemble the calyx of a moss rose, a
peculiarity which I do not find noted in any described species of
this order. One of the two is a small under-shrub, with the
calyx and the corolla yellow;
the other a slender herbaceous
twiner with
Achimenes,
declivities.
a scarlet calyx and a dull
with pretty scarlet flowers,
violet corolla.
abounds along
An
the
ig/io/iiacece, 2. The one a Bignonia, with round stems ; the
other an Amphilophium, with 6-angled stems both twiners. An-
;
other Bignonia wr as seen, not in flower. I saw no tree of this
order, though Tecomae exist both in the plain and in the cool
hill forests. I have never seen any climbing Bignoniaceae at a
greater elevation than about 3500 feet, but they form a large
proportion of the scandent vegetation of the hot plains.
Acanthacea, 9. This order is tolerably abundant, and two
under -shrubs growing about the lower boundary of the Bark
region bear spikes of large handsome scarlet flowers, in appearance
like those of a Justicia, but different in character. A Mendozia,
with woody twining stems and umbels of small white
verbena-like flowers, grows everywhere.
Scroplntlariaceie, 4. All humble herbs, two of them species of
Herpestes, and all rather scarce.
Of Ferns and their allies I gathered the following :
Equisetum .
Lycopodium
Selaginella
Species.
i
Polybotrya . i
Rhipidopteris . i
Elaphoglossum . . 5
Lomaria....
Blechnum
Xiphopteris . . i
Gymnopteris
i
2
6
2
i