12 ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOCYNACEAL, 
HANCORNIA. 
The description of the fruit and seeds of this genus given, in a few words, by Endlicher, 
DeCandolle, and Müller is copied from that of Gomez; but it is incomplete. Aware of 
this, I lately procured from Pernambuco several fruits preserved in spirit; and Ï now 
give the results of their examination. The globular epicarp is a thin coriaceous skin, 
covering a paler yellowish fleshy mass, which exudes a milky juice, is sweet and of 
a pleasant flavour: it contains several white seeds somewhat sparsely imbedded in it, 
which are oval, compressed, consisting only of an albumen and enclosed embryo, the 
testa not having been noticed by any previous observer; this, however, exists, appearing 
like a smooth hollow cyst, in which the albuminous body reposes; this albumen shows 
on the ventral side, a little below the summit, a hollow with a mamillary point which 
has been mistaken for the hilum; but it is only the end of the radicle, which almost pro- 
trudes. The testa or erst is of an orange colour, is covered externally with numerous 
papillose scales, between which the fleshy matter is insinuated, and thus holds it so fast 
that it is impossible to extricate it. Intermixed with the fertile seeds we find in the soft 
mass many sterile ones, where the nature of the testa is clearly seen; these are free from 
the mass, or at least easily separated. This is an empty sac, compressed, showing the true 
hilum in the centre of one face, all the rest of the surface being papillose as above- 
mentioned. 
Müller has united the different species as mere varieties of a single one; but I make out 
three distinct species :—1. HANCORNIA SPECIOSA, Gomez; well figured by Müller in his 
pl. viii. fig. 3; it is the Ribeira sorbilis of Arruda (in Cent. Pl. Pernam.), and flourishes 
in the sertáos or flat arid plains in the province of Pernambuco: its leaves are smaller, 
oblong, narrowing to the summit, quite glabrous, on a slender petiole } their length: the 
peduncle of the inflorescence is 3 lines long, bears 2 or 3 flowers on pedicels 6 lines long, 
each flower 13 in. long. 2. H. PUBESCENS, Nees & Mart., is found on the high tablelands 
in the province of Minas Geraés, is arborescent, with leaves covered beneath with fine 
ferruginous tomentum, which in my specimen (Claussen, 222) are 2-21 in. long, 10-12 
lines broad, more gradually acute at both extremities than in the preceding species, and 
on a pubescent petiole 3 lines long; they differ especially in having few, remote, ascend- 
ing nerves: its corymbose flowers are larger, with a shorter tube, and are more numerous. 
3. H. GARDNERI is a tree about 12 feet high, from the province of Goyaz, has much 
larger and broader leaves, rounded towards the summit, where they are suddenly 
narrowed into a short linear acumen, with closely parallel patent nerves, quite glabrous, 
2-3 in. long, 14-14 in. broad, on petioles 1-1} line long; the terminal corymb has a 
very short peduncle bearing 6 or 8 erect flowers on pedicels 2 lines long; the flowers are 
2 in. long, including the linear segments (9 lines); the fruit is more than double the size 
of that of the two preceding species, and is equal in size to a large peach. The differences 
are sufficiently great to constitute three valid species. 
The typical species has long been cultivated near Pernambuco, and was first described 
by Gomez. The milky juice yielded by all of them, as well as by the fruits known by 
