72 MR. O. BENTHAM OS ANONACE.'E. 



The Hexalolus brasiliensis, A. de St.-Hil., and Naud. in Ann. 

 Sc. Nat. Par. ser. 2, v. xvii. p. 133, t. 6, evidently differs in several 

 respects from the original species of that genus, which are all 

 African. I have not seen the plant, and some slight discrepancies 

 in the figured analyses of the flower preclude my forming any 

 more precise idea of its affinities. 



The collections transmitted by the late Mr. Barter from Western 

 tropical Africa supply a few new species of Anonacece, amongst 

 which the most remarkable is a second species of Monodora. The 

 structure of the ovary of this handsome genus appears to have been 

 in some measure misunderstood. It has been supposed to consist 

 of a single carpel with very numerous ovules lining the whole inner 

 surface of the cavity. It is, however, perfectly centrical and regu- 

 lar, faintly marked outside with numerous longitudinal furrows, 

 and the peltate centrical stigma has as many curvatures or minute 

 radiating lobes. This shows that it is a compound ovary consisting 

 of the union of numerous carpels, the confluence of whose closely- 

 packed placentae gives the appearance of the irregular dispersion 

 of the ovules over the inner surface. 



The two species of Monodora may be distinguished as follows : — 



1. M. myristica, Don, Hook, in Bot. Mag. t. 3059. Foliis cuneato- 

 oblongis basi obtusis, petalis valde undulatis crassiusculis, interioribus 

 extus medium versus villosis. 



2. M. tenuifolia, sp. n. Foliis anguste oblongis basi longe acuteque 

 angustatis, petalis margine crispis interioribus glabriusculis. — Folia 

 quam in M. myristica minora, multo tenuiora, et basi nequaquam ob- 

 tusata. Petala exteriora anguste ovato-lanceolata, 1^-pollicaria, inte- 

 riora minora quam in M. myristica. 



Gathered by Mr. Barter at Eppah on the Niger River. He describes it 

 as a shrub of seven feet in height, with deciduous leaves. Flowers 

 very beautiful : the outer petals white at the base, spotted red, brown 

 and yellow towards the apex, and crisped on the margin ; the inner 

 ones yellow, with a curious appendage in the centre. In the dried 

 specimens this appendage appears in the shape of a little hairy tuft on 

 the margin near the centre, but it is somewhat irregular in its position, 

 and is probably the effect of the puncture of some insect. 



Our Borneo collectors have supplied us with two remarkable 

 new genera, Disepalum and Sphwrothalamus, which are described 

 and figured by Dr. Hooker for the next part of the Transactions 

 of the Society. 



