ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOOYNACEZ. 21 
fimbriatim 10-lobam incrassato; stigmatibus 2, acutis, terminalibus. In Venezuela: v. s. in herd. 
Mus. Brit. Valle la Cura (Moritz 1158). 
The axils of the branchlets are 4 in. apart; the leaves are 51-6 in. long, 14-12 in. 
broad, on a petiole 3 in. long: the peduncle of the raceme is shorter than the petiole, 
3-4-flowered; the pedicels 5 lines long; the sepals 2 lines long; the tube of the corolla 
is 10 lines long, its segments 5 lines long, 23 lines broad. 
The particulars of the floral structure of this plant, and a copious analysis of the fruit 
and seed of the Linnean species, are given in Plate IV. A. 
Müller, in Linn. xxx. 392, describes another new species from Paraguay (Weddell 
3112), under the name of Thevetia cornuta. 
ASPIDOSPERMA. 
This genus, established by Martius in 1824, consists of numerous species, 19 of which 
were enumerated by Prof. DeCandolle in 1854, and 30 others, soon after, described by 
Dr. Müller. They are generally trees of considerable size, yielding valuable hard white 
woods, known in Brazil as ** marfim” (ivory), “ peroba,” and rz piquiá;" they have generally 
alternate or crowded leaves, and an inflorescence of extremely small flowers, in the struc- 
ture of which there is nothing that calls for remark, except that the estivation was 
stated by DeCandolle, in error, to be of dextrorse convolution, instead of sinistrorse as 
more correctly shown by Müller, and that the disk, small, annular, and adhering to the 
ovaries, is sometimes evanescent. The structure of the fruit and seeds is very peculiar, 
and has hardly been correctly described. I have added here an analytical drawing of 
that of 4. Gomezianum, A. DC., which I gathered and examined in 1835, in Rio de 
Janeiro, which will serve as an illustration of the carpological features of the genus. 
The fruit, normally, should consist of 2 follicles; but I do not remember an instance 
where both are perfected; and it is certain that generally one is abortive. In 
A. Gomezianum this follicle, about 2 in. long, is of an obovoid form, much compressed, 
somewhat convex on both faces, the pericarp being hard, almost ligneous, much rounder 
along the ventral edge, in the line of which the dehiscence takes place by a suture which 
occupies ¿ of the whole periphery; and on the external faces a curved ridge is seen 
extending from one end of the suture to the other: hence it happens that, as the suture 
gapes open, the pericarp assumes the form of 2 valves, remaining united along the dorsal 
edge, when within each valve are seen 4 seeds (8 in all) extremely flat, closely applied to 
each other, of an oval form, filling the internal cavity, each having a flatteued oval 
embryoniferous scutcheon surrounded by a broad membranaceous wing; in the centre, 
on one side of this scutcheon, is seen a small hilum, attached to one end of a long 
slender funicle, the other end of which emanates from the inner margin of the suture at 
the summit, and each seed is thus suspended; but as the hilum is invariably placed on 
the side furthest from its corresponding valve, the funicles of the 4th and 5th seeds touch 
one another, and all have an aspect towards the axis: the scutcheon, which is thinly 
chartaceous and indehiscent, is filled by a free, compressed body of thin pergamineous 
texture, which appears to me a thin albumen, as it bears no indication of a chaloza, which 
