256 M. COEREA DE MELLO ON SOME BHAZILTAN PLAXT9. 



Mart., or W. Eiedeli, Manso, Euum. 50, note e {Momordica verti- 

 cillata, Veil. FL Flum. ic. x. t. 96). The first is frequently to 

 be met with in the virgin forests and capoeiras near this town. The 

 flowers are monoecious or dioecious ; that is to say, some indivi- 

 duals produce male flowers only, others female flowers only ; in 

 others, again, when they commence flowering, the flowers are all 

 males ; later, males and females are produced in the same axils, 

 and finally females only. In this species the male flowers are 

 crowded at the end of a peduncle, which lengthens as the flowers 

 are developed, which takes place from the base upwards. The 

 fruit, about an inch, more or less, in length, is ovoid or ovoid- 

 oblong, attenuate towards the end, and lO-ribbed and terminating 

 in a point or beak formed by the persistent calyx-tube (which is 

 produced above the ovary). I have never seen the second spe- 

 cies ; but its fruits are, according to Manso, smooth (not ribbed), 

 and the spikes of the male flowers elongated, which agrees well 

 with the above-cited figure of Vellozo, in which the fruits are re- 

 presented as not ribbed, and the male flowers as somewhat dis- 

 tant from each other. 



Manso 



Mart, 



of ovules in each cell of the ovary. The Cayaponia diffusa^ 

 Manso (which I believe to be identical with the C elUptica, 

 Manso, Enum. Subst. Bras. 32, where, by a clerical error, it is 

 named Dermophylla elliptica, and which I also suppose to be the 



86) 



(occurring 



in high and dry places) in the neighbourhood of this town. The 



with 



superposed two and two, and separated from each other by a mem- 

 brane ; each cell is divided along the centre longitudinally by a 



G 



) 



two superposed ovules, each one in a cellule of its own, there being 

 thus four ovules in each true cell (see fig. 1). On the other hand, in 

 Trianosperma, the ovary contains only one or two ovules in each 

 cell. Of Cayaponia caboclay Mart. Syst. Mat. Med. Bras. 81 

 {Bryonia calocla, Veil. I. c, t. 88, or Ckiyaponia glohosa^ Mans. 

 Enum. Z. c. 82), I have seen a branch with ripe fruits. The fruits 

 of this species are 3-celled, and in each cell there are often four 

 seeds, from which I conclude that the ovary must be more or less 



