GENERA OF UNCERTAIN POSITION. 339 



commissures, showing a disposition to form two valves, as figured 

 by Seemann 1 . 



The dissepiment is not shown in his drawing of fig. 4, which was 

 made from a hasty sketch of the living plant, the dissepiment 

 being scarcely noticed by him. Here the parietal placenta, bear- 



ing the ovules 



) 



waxy pulp in which the numerous small seeds are imbedded and 

 are thus transferred into the middle of the cells. 



Prom these parallel analogous facts it is manifest that Min- 

 guartia belongs to the Crescentiacecp, forming a third genus of 

 that family, distinct both from Crescentia and Parmentiera. 



In Minguartia gutanensis, a lofty tree, its many fruits are clus- 

 tered in bunches, hanging down from the axils and extremities of 

 the branches, as in Parmentiera : these fruits are pear-shaped, 

 4^ inches long, nearly 2 inches broad, on pedicels 1 inch Ion 

 they are smooth and greenish. The indehiscent pericarp, of soft 

 fibrous consistence, is 3 lines thick, having a thin dissepiment ; 

 the many compressed seeds, imbedded in soft pulp in each cell, 

 are orbicular, 4 lines in diameter, resembling those of Crescentia 

 cucurbitina 2 , and are peltately attached. 



The conclusion formed, as above stated, from these concurrent 

 testimonies, is that ALinauartia belongs to the Crescent iacece : and 





this cannot, therefore, be denied. 



Senapea. 



It is not difficult to assign a proper place to this genus of 

 Aublet, hitherto of doubtful position. Senapea gutanensis a is a 



■ 



scandent shrub, with flexuose climbing branches, furnished with 

 distant, alternate, elliptic, entire, petiolated leaves, acute at both 

 extremities. The inflorescence is not known ; but a single 

 slender peduncle issues from the axil bearing a solitary largo 

 fruit, borne upon a small persistent calyx of five acute sepals. 

 This fruit is of an oblong shape, rounded at the summit, some- 



what narrower at its base, 3 inches long, 3 inches broad, sexstriate, 

 smooth, and, from its weight, hanging down; its pericarp is 

 yellow, fibrously fleshy, \ an inch thick, lined with a thin white 



1 Bot. * Herald,' tab. 32 (in transverse section, fig. 4). 



2 Gaertner fil. De Fructu, vol. iii. p. 229, tab. 223. figs, b to/. 



3 Plant. Guian. vol. ii. SuppL p. 23, tab. 381. 



