1G0 DR. BALFOUR ON A NEW GENUS OF 



Mathurina penduliflora (species unica). 



Arbor parva usque ad 20 pedes alta, ramis erectis, foliorum cieatricibus 

 magnis. Folia lanceolata v. obcuneata acuta, sed per adolescentiara 

 linearia, petiolo brevi margine utroque versus medium glandula in- 

 structo, lamina decurrente. Flores albidi. Glandulse sepalorum intus 

 sulcata; pubescentes, apice emarginatae. Ovarium glabrum, stylis 

 incurvatis. 



This tree, a native of the island of Rodriguez, in the Indian 

 Ocean, is known to the inhabitants as the Bois Grandine. It is 

 small and handsome, never attaining any great height, with a 

 very erect habit and the terminal branchlets thickly clothed 

 with light-green foliage. The foliage is peculiarly heterophyllous 

 a character remarkable in most of the trees endemic in the 

 island. The adult leaves are more or less obcuneate and elongated, 

 with a rounded and acute apex, and the margins crenate ; but on 

 young plants, and on adventitious shoots of old trees, the leaves 

 are linear and widely serrate ; and betwixt those extremes a series 

 of transitional forms may be obtained. The tree flowers in 

 December, very profusely, the flowers being of a greenish-white 

 hue. 



The stem has a rough, light-coloured bark, and is usually 

 thickly clad with lichens. The wood is light-coloured, and fine- 

 grained ; but as the tree does not grow to any size, it is not much 

 used by the inhabitants. The tree grows almost always on the 

 higher parts of the island ; only in two localities have I found 

 a specimen on the lower ground or near the sea. It belongs to 

 the family Turneracese, the nearest affinity being with the mono- 

 typic genus Erblichia of Seemann, a native of Panama. 



In the family Turneracese, as constituted in Bentham and 

 Hooker's c Genera Plantarum ' (vol. i. p. 806), three genera are 

 described — Turnera, Erblichia, and Wormskioldia. Of these, 

 Turnera, embracing about 70 species, is confined to America, 

 save one Cape species ; Erblichia, endemic on the Isthmus of 

 Panama, is monotypic ; and Wormskioldia, including four species, 

 is an African genus. Of these genera none are indigenous in 

 the Mascarene islands. Turnera angustifolia, DC, is mentioned 

 by Bojer (Hort. Maur. p. 152) as growing wild in many parts of 

 Mauritius ; and a species of the same genus is also found intro- 

 duced in Bourbon. Hitherto no plant of this family has been 

 described as indigenous in these islands ; and this lends additional 

 interest to the discovery of the plant now before us. 





