GEKEEA OF UNCERTAIN POSITION. 335 



* 



tangled woody fibres, the endocarp being thin and brittle ; the 

 embryo has no extraneous coating, but is enclosed within the 

 usual membranaceous integument, and consists of two large coty- 

 ledons which have an extremely bitter taste. 



While treating of this family, I will mention that the Parina- 

 rium of Aublet is very different from the I* armarium of DeCan- 

 dolle, of Bentham, of Hooker, and of Blume. In that of Aublet 

 each pedicellated flower of the panicle has a cup-shaped calyx, 

 with a border of 5 small teeth, and alternate with these teeth are 

 5 erect petals, and a little below their insertion 14 stamens with- 

 out any appendage are affixed, 7 of which are unilateral and fertile, 

 the other 7 anantherous stamens being consecutive, the fila- 

 ments of all being free, erect, and capillary ; the ovary, as long 

 as the calycine tube, is somewhat gibbous, pilose, free, seated in 

 the base, with a long exserted style and a bilobed stigma. In the 

 Parinarium of Bentham the flowers have a very different struc- 

 ture. Two species from British Guiana are described 1 ; and I do 

 not hesitate to declare my firm conviction that both belong to 

 Licania 2 ; indeed, except in the specific character of the leaves, 

 all the floral features nearly correspond word for word with those 

 attributed to a Brazilian species oi Licania by Dr. Hooker. This 

 species was collected by me, in 1834, on the Corcovado, when I 

 made a drawing; and I therefore know it well. The analysis of its 

 flowers is well represented in Dr. Hooker's drawing : this shows 

 10 stamens not longer than the teeth of the calyx, all seated on 

 the margin of an elevated membranaceous ring, 5 of them uni- 

 lateral and fertile, the anthers oscillatory, the rest, without an- 

 thers, consecutive ; the ovary, free in the base of the calyx, is 

 pubescent, contains two ascending ovules : the drupe is concealed 

 within the globular pubescent enlarged calyx, crowned by the five 

 connivent lobes ; it is 4 lines in diameter and is monospermous ; 

 though stated in the text to be unknown, it is, nevertheless, ac- 

 curately figured in Dr. Hooker's plate before referred to. 



Hence it follows that the Parinarium of Hooker must share the 

 fate of that of Bentham, and the six species of Hooker should be 



transferred to Licania. 



In regard to the fruit, Aublet shows that in Parinarium mon- 



1 P. brachystachyum, Benth., Hook. Journ. Bot. i. p. 213 (Schoinb. 925), and 

 P. coriaccum, Benth., loc. cit. p. 213 (Schornb. G5). 



2 Licania Kimthiana, Hook, in Flor. Bras. fasc. 42, p. 10, tab. 3, sub Licania 

 incana, Benth. (non Aublet). 



2b 2 



