> A in ee A A AER 
ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOCYNACEZ. 35 
arched ridge: raceme short, opposite at the nodes, on peduncles 4 lines long, its branches 
of the same length, each bearing about 2 flowers on bracteolated pedicels 6 lines long; 
sepals lanceolate, deflected at the apex, 2 lines long, with a pluridentate scale inside at 
the base; tube of corolla narrowly cylindrical above, swollen near the base, 5 lines long, 
dolabriform segments 3 lines long, simply contorted sinistrorsely in zestivation ; stamens 
inserted in the basal portion of the tube; 2 oblong pointed ovaries, without any apparent 
disk; style very short, clavuncle incrassated and deeply 5-grooved ; 2 oblong subreniform 
follicles, densely muricated, 1 in. long, 7 lines broad, each containing 16 seeds suspended 
from the two sutural placentee by as many very thick orange-coloured fleshy funicles 
9 lines long, nearly 2 lines thick; seeds oval, compressed, convex and striated on the 
dorsal side, longitudinally channelled to near the base on the ventral side, the hilum 
placed on the hollow below the centre, where they are attached to the funicle; they are 
5 lines long, 3 lines broad ; albumen corneous, of the same shape, containing an embryo 
of near its length, 3 lines long, with a slender terete superior radicle, as long as the 
oval flat cotyledons. 
The granular elevations on the leaves are opake when dry ; but in the living state they 
are pellucid. 
This plant, its inflorescence, its follicles, and the peculiar manner of the suspension of 
its seeds are represented in Plate VI. 4. 
5. PEscurERA LÆTA, nob.: Tabernemontana leta, Mart. in Hb. Pl. Bras. p. 104; A. DC. l. c. p. 364 
(excl. syn.) ; Gardn. in Lond. Journ. Bot. i. 179; Müll. in Flor. Bras. fasc. 26, p. 79; Mart. op. cit. 
fasc. 40, p. 183, tab. 54. fig. 1. In prov. Rio de Janeiro: v. v. et sicc. hb. meo (n. 3014), in flore in 
ascensu Monte Corcovado ; v. s. in Ab. Mus. Brit. ex eod. loc. (Gardn. 75). 
T found this species in flower, in September 1837, in company with Gardner; it has 
been found also at Itagoahy in the same province; and in 1864 Dr. Peckholt sent to Von 
Martius a specimen of the same in flower and in fruit, the structure of which is shown 
in the plate above cited. "This structure is quite similar to that I witnessed and figured 
in P. fuchsiefolia; but Martius has drawn the funicle, seed, and embryo in an inverted 
position : he calls the funicle an arillus; but this cannot be, as one end of it is attached 
to the hilum, the other end to the placenta. 
This is a small tree, with pale, angulo-sulcated, lenticellated, stoutish, dichotomous 
branchlets; the opposite leaves, somewhat heterophyllous in each node, are oblong 
or lanceolate-oblong, acute at both ends, somewhat insquilateral at the base, sub 
membranaceous, entire or subrepand along the margin, palish green above, and sulcated 
along the midrib, yellowish opake below, with reddish immersed nerves on both sides, as 
in P. fuchsiafolia; they are 33 and 43 in. long, 1% and 1 in. broad, on petioles 
5 and 8 lines long, conjoined across the node by an arching ridge in the upper superior 
axils. The subterminal panicle is 23 in. long; the peduncle, 4 lines long, has three 
branches 6 lines long, each bearing 6 or 8 flowers on bracteolated pedicels 3-4 lines 
long; sepals scarcely 1 line long, acute, each with an internal pluridentate scale at its 
base; tube of corolla cylindrical, swollen at the base, 5 lines long, segments obliquely 
oblong, 4 lines long; stamens, as usual, inserted near the base; 2 free oblong ovaries 
F 2 
