338 ME. J. MIERS ON SOME SOUTII-AMEKICAN 



MlNGUAKTIA. 



This genus of Aublet 1 is referred by Prof. DeCandolle 2 to the 

 Apocynacece, tribe Carissece, near Vdhea {JJrceolxis)\ but in my view 

 ir offers no approach whatever toward that family. At a casual 

 glance it might be thought somewhat near Anibellania, nob. (non 

 Aublet) ; but on examination this idea must be rejected, for in that 

 genus the peltate seeds are inserted upon and partly imbedded 

 in the thick fleshy dissepiment 3 . On the other hand, in Minguar- 

 tia the seeds are far remote from either the dissepiment or from 

 the walls of the pericarp, in a manner badly represented in Aublet's 

 plate. It is clear, therefore, that Minguartia cannot belong to 

 the Apocynacece. 



"We may gather from Aublet's description that the numerous 

 compressed orbicular seeds in Minguartia, remote, as just stated, 

 from within the dissepiment or endocarp, are arranged in the two 

 cells in close proximity ("placees de champ les unes sous les 

 autres") and imbedded in a pulpy substance which fills the cells — a 

 development occurring in no other family than in the Crescentiacece. 

 In Crescentia, in the young state, the ovary is unilocular, with 

 several parietal nerves inside, along which many sessile ovules are 

 affixed ; the ovary grows into a fruit of large size ; and in this 

 growth, the placenta, carrying with them the ovules, spread in 

 all directions, becoming a fleshy pulp interspersed with numerous 

 spiral nourishing-vessels, and is thus resolved into lamellae, to 

 which the seeds are severally attached at a central hilum. So in 

 Minguartia a similar result may be traced. Although this mode 

 of growth was not understood by Aublet, his details clearly mani- 

 fest a similar structure and development. 



In Crescentia the fruits are invariably unilocular, filled with 

 soft pulp in which numerous seeds are imbedded in the manner 

 above explained. In Parmentiera, as stated by De Candolle 4 , the 

 the fruits are 2-4-locular, especially in P. edulis, as well as in 

 -P. aculcata ( Crescentia), H. B. K. In Parmentiera cereifera, Seem. 5 , 

 the wax-candle tree, the fruit is cylindrical, very long, 1 inch in 

 diameter, with two opposite sulcate lines accompanied by two 



1 PI. Guinn. ii. Suppl. p. 4, tab. 370. * Prodr. xvii. p. 295. 



3 



5 



Apoeyn. S. Amer. p. 13, tab. IB. 4 Prodr. ix. p. 244 



Bot. ■ Herald/ p. 182. 



