pendula, magna, phunbea nitore metallico, compressa, rugosa, ad hilum gib- 
bosa ; testa exterior crassa suberoso-coriacea, fibrosa, interior coriacea, alba, 
apicc deprcssa kmc spilo discolore et funiculo tenui atriore testes exteriori 
(/xasi ajfixn, Ijasi lutca funiculo albo diaphano ad hilum verso. Embryo ovatus 
albus crassus co/nptrssus caryiosus ; ootyledones integree, npice obttisissinuB, 
basi leviter sagittatce ; radicula depresso-conica, crassa, kilo proxima. 
For this iandsome annual species of Martynia, we 
are indebted to the Honourable and Reverend William 
Herbert, who communicated specimens in flower in 
August last, and hj whom it was raised from seeds received 
froHi<i /(lie- ! Brazils. It jjiobubly requires the treatment 
applicable to other half-tender annuals. 
The station to be assigned to Martynia, in a natural 
arifangement, has been fixed by the illustrious de Jussieu 
in itie 3d section of his Bignoniae, and it has been sufferied 
to remain in nearly the same place, by succeeding Botanists. 
To this arrangement, it may be perhaps considered that 
there js QO- material objection to offer; but there are some 
points connected with the structure of Martynia, to which 
it "fis our wish to call attention, whether they be considered 
confirmatory of its present station or not. In the first 
pL^^ce, its capsule has been, we believe always, described as 
4-lociilar; a character which Martynia has been supposed 
to possess in common with certain undoubted Bignoniaceae, 
rightly, however, designated as pseudo-4-locular, by 
Mr. Brown. But upon a careful examination of the ova- 
rium, it will be found that the fruit, in that stage, is 
neither 4-celled, nor even 2-celled, but consists of only one 
cell, traversed by two j^rojecting, parietal placentae, each 
of which is two-lobed ; the lobes dividing at right angles, 
from their point of separation, and bearing on their edges 
a few horizontal ovula, of which part project into the open 
centre of the ovarium, and the others into the cavity 
between the placenta and the lining of the ov arium. Now 
the capsule differs from the ovarium in no essential point 
of structure ; but the following changes take place : the 
pericarpium and the placentas become woody and rigid ; 
the inner Hu . - of the latter become pressed together, so as 
to destroy the ovula which were placed between them, 
and to exhibit the appearance of a bilamellar dissepiment, 
and the l^maining ovula become pendulous, and reduced 
