ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOCYNACER. 109 
SKYTANTHUS. 
A genus first proposed by Meyen in 1834, upon a Chile plant. A second species was 
described by Prof. De Candolle in 1844, as the type of his genus Neriandra—an excel- 
lent analysis, under the latter name, being shown in Delessert's Icones. Its fruit and 
seeds, however, were then unknown. Miller, in 1860, described a third species, and at 
the same time figured the fruit and seeds of De Candolle's species. The genus is dis- 
tinguished by the long setaceous termination of its anthers—a feature also occurring in 
Nerium and Strophanthus, in the tribe Stipecomee: it is also notable for the total absence 
of a disk. The fruit consists of 2 long slender follicles, containing many imbricate, oblong, 
glabrous, compressed seeds winged at both extremities, without am apical coma, and 
peltately attached by a central hilum to the inflected placenta. This structure places 
the genus in the tribe Robbiee. 
1. SkvraNTHUS acurus, Meyen, Reise i. 376; Endl. Gen. Suppl. p. 1396; A. DC. I. c. p. 488: Skytalan- 
thus acutus, Schauer, Nov. Act. xix. Suppl. i. 361; Gay, Chile, iv. 385; Walp. Rep. vi. 478: 
Neriandra angustifolia, A. DC. l. c. p. 422. In Chile ad Copiapo : non vidi. 
A low shrub, with a subprostrate or procumbent stem, and terete pubescent branches ; 
leaves approximated, opposite or alternate, lanceolate, subcuneate at the base, obtuse, 
with a recurved mucronate apex, entire, coriaceous, with revolute margins, midrib 
immersed above, prominent beneath, opakely glaucous above, farinaceously puberulous 
below, 11-2 in. long, 2-3 lines broad, on petioles 2-4 lines long; cymes axillary or ter- 
minal, shorter than the leaves, on a trichotomous peduncle, few-flowered, with minute 
bracts; pedicels 3 lines long; sepals acute, as in the pedicels hirtellous, 14 line long; 
tube of yellow corolla 7 lines long, villous within; segments oval, of the same length, 
puberulous outside; anthers exserted, with long apical appendages; 2 long, terete, com- 
pressed subulate, falcate, velvety follicles, horn-shaped, giving to the plant the name of 
“ euernecilla." 
2. SkvrANTHUS HANCORNLEFOLIUS, nob.: Neriandra hancorniefolia, A. DC. l. c. p. 422; Deless. Icon. y 
22, tab. 50; Müll. 7. c. p. 63, tab. 50. fig. 1. In prov. Bahia, Jacobina, in montibus: non vidi. 
A shrubby species, with terete glabrous branches; leaves opposite or subalternate, 
oblong, cuneate at the base, subacute towards the apex, nerves approximate, patently 
parallel, slender, 13-2 in. long, 7-9 lines broad, on very slender petioles 4-7 lines 
long; panicles dichotomous in opposite axils, slender, 2-23 in. long; pedicels 4 lines 
long, slender, with a very minute basal bracteole; sepals acutely linear, imbricated, 
1} line long, without inner scales; tube of corolla 3 lines long, narrowly cylindrical ; 
segments 6 lines long, oblong, subreflexed, dextrorsely convolute; stamens seated in 
the middle of the tube, with long, exserted apical appendages, spirally twisted together ; 
disk none; 2 free ovaries; follicles 2, terete, puberulous, horizontally expanding, ex- 
trorsely arching, 8 in. long, 2 lines broad; seeds oblong, winged all round, 8 lines long, 
2 lines broad, with a central hilum, peltately attached on each side of a solid torose 
placenta. 
