M. J. C. DE MELLO AND ME. R. SPRUCE ON PAPATACE-a;. 7 



to sit up to a table to examine specimens, I must be content to 

 supplement this memoir with a short sketch of the ascertained 

 distribution of the Papayacese, and of their history and proper- 

 ties, and with indicating what remains to be done before they 

 can be monographed satisfactorily. 



The 33 (or 35) species of which I have any knowledge, are 

 thus distributed in tropical and subtropical America * : 



West Indies : 2 species — one still un described (an O. citrifor^nis^ 

 Hook, non Jacq. ?). 



Coast-range of Terrajirma: 2 species {caulijtoraj Jacq., and 

 microcarpa^ Poir.). 



Mexico : 4 species f. 



Andes qfJVetv Granada and Ecuador : 5 or 6 species. 



Andes of Feru (chiefly eastern slope): 7 or 8 species. 



Andes of Bolima and Chili : 2 species. 



Pacific coast (or coast valleys) : 3 species. 



SouthBrazil {cliiefly near tlie Tropic of Capricorn) : 4 (?) species. 



Atlantic coast (and Amazon) : 1 or 2 species {spinosa^ Aubl., 

 and digitata, Aubl.). - 



Cultivated — native country uncertain : 2 species {citriformis^ 

 Jacq., and citriformis^ Hook. ?). 



. Here we see the Papayacese occupying a sort of ring around 

 Guayana and Brazil — abounding towards the northern and southern 

 tropics^ along the Andes from Mexico to Chili^ and on the Atlantic 

 sea-hoard, hut almost wanting to the immense included area. Un- 

 discovered species may still lurk in the mountainous region of 

 central Brazil ; but in Amazonia and Spanish Guayana I never 

 met with a single truly wild species, either in the plains or on 

 the hills. Whether the two prickly- stemmed species (or forms of 

 one species) be truly wild in French Guayana, I know not, I 

 never fell in with either of them, although C spinosa is certainly 

 sometimes planted near the towns on the Amazon, and Poppig 

 saw what he supposed to be 0. digitata at Ega ; but we know, 

 from the testimony of Martins, Mello, and others, that those 

 species, or others scarcely distinguishable from them, are cer- 

 tainly indigenous in Southern Brazil. 



+ 



L 



In this enumeration are included, besides the twentj-five species described 

 in the ' Prodromus,' eleven species seen (and most of them gathered) by mj- 

 self in the Andes and on the Pacific coast. 



f C. nanay Benth. PL Hartw., a Mexican plant, whose eutii^e height is said 

 to be only 3J inches, and without leaves, is probably a shoot from an old stocky 

 such as I have seen in C. j^apaya. 



