26 III. ANONACE.* (OLIVEK). 



7. POLYALTHIA, Blume; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 25. 



Mowers hermaphrodite or polygamo-dioecious. Sepals 3, free or connate 

 below, valvate or slightly imbricate in aestivation. Petals 6, equal or sub- 

 equal, valvate in two series in aestivation, ovate or linear. Stamens indefi- 

 nite (in the following polygamous species about 5 in the hermaphrodite), 

 linear or cuneate, connective dilated and thickened beyond the cells or (in 

 the African species) shortly produced and compressed. Carpels indefinite 

 (wanting in the <^ of the African species). Stigma oblong or capitate. 

 Ovules 1 or 2, usually erect (attached to the ventral suture in the African 

 species). Fruit-carpels stipitate, globose or oblong, 1-seeded. — Trees or 

 shrubs. Flowers solitary or fascicled, axillary or extra-axillary. 



A considerable genus of the Indian continent and Archipelago, with an Australian outlier. 

 The species here described does not accord well with the genus, nor yet with Unotia, with 

 which its ventral (and superposed, when geminate) ovules ally it. It would be premature, 

 however, with our present imperfect knowledge of African Jnonacece, either to create a new 

 genus for it or to definitively modify the characters of any existing genus in order to in- 

 clude it. 



1. P.? acuminata, Oliv. A small tree, with glabrous slender twigs 

 or the tips at first sparsely pubescent. Leaves thinly coriaceous, oval-oblong 

 or oval, narrowed into a rather long acumen, narrowed cuneate or slightly 

 rounded at the base, glabrous, 4-7 in. long, l|-2 in. broad ; petiole about 

 1 line. Peduncles very short or nearly } in., leaf-opposed or variously extra- 

 axillary, bearing 1-3 pedicellate polygamo-dioecious flowers ; pedicels about 

 £ in., with minute, rotundate, clasping bracts at or near the middle. Sepals 

 more or less connate below, rotundate, obtuse, minutely pubescent, nearly 1 

 line long and broad. Petals equal, erect or ascending, open, narrow-linear, 

 obtuse, plane ; the margins often involute near the middle, puberulous, \ in. 

 long. Male fl. : Stamens 14-18 ; anthers nearly sessile, linear ; the connec- 

 tive shortly produced into a compressed obtuse tip. Torus convex. Carpels 0. 

 Female fl. : Stamens about 5, obtuse or pointed. Carpels densely crowded, 

 10-12, nearly glabrous ; ovary linear or clavate, with a sessile globose 

 stigma. Ovules solitary or geminate, attached to the ventral suture. Fruit- 

 carpels (not seen ripe), stipitate, globose, 1-seeded. 



Upper Guinea. Bagroo river, Mann ! Old Calabar, Thomson ! 



In the Kew herbarium there is a specimen of P. (Guatteria) Korinti (Dun.), labelled 

 Giiatterialucida, Boj.,as from Mombase Island, off the coast of E. Tropical Africa, but Mr. 

 Bciilham is of opinion that the label has been misplaced, and that it belongs to the Uteri* 

 Ittcida, described at page 21. 



8. HEXALOBUS, A. DC; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. i. 24. 



Flowers hermaphrodite. Sepals 3, ovate, coriaceous, valvate in aestivation. 

 Petals 6, elongate, narrow, eonnate at the base into a short tube, valvate (?) 

 in two series and transversely folded in aestivation. Stamens indefinite ; an- 

 thers linear or linear-cuneate ; connective thickened and truncate or scarcely 

 produced beyond the cells ; filaments short. Torus more or less convex or 

 truncate. Carpels 3-12 ; stigma 2-lobed ; ovules numerous, 2-1 -seriate. 

 Fruit-carpels oblong or ellipsoidal, sometimes slightly constricted, sessile nt 

 the continental species. 



