ma Ses 
the apex of the pistil. Not having had the advantage of 
seeing the fruit in a recent state, [ shall describe it in the 
words of M. Porrzav. “ Although a raceme is com 
of fifty to one hundred flowers, it produces but one or two 
round fruits, four to eight inches in diameter, reddish, rough 
to the touch, and marked by a circle, bearing the calyx at 
two-thirds of its height. In describing the bark of this 
fruit, 1 must employ the nomenclature of Ricuarp ; its epi- 
carp is crustaceous, thin but solid; its sarcocarp is ve 
thick and fleshy, the endocarp woody, a line thick, and 
very solid ; the sarcocarp becomes deliquescent, and leaves 
a considerable space between the epicarp and endocarp, 
thus allowing the latter to roll about freely in the former. 
The endocarp is full of pulp, at first greenish-white, and 
becoming blue on exposure to the air. When the fruit is 
cut and ripe it has the colour of wine-lees, and diffuses a 
most intolerable odour. The six cells, which are evident 
im the green state, disappear at maturity, and the seeds are 
found here and there, of indeterminate number, scattered in 
the pulp: they are oval, roundish, compressed, covered 
with a woolly coriaceous membrane, and furnished with a 
long and equally woolly podosperm ; the membrane in 
question cleaves laterally, and allows the escape of the 
kernel, covered with its own very thin coat. "The embryo 
1s roundish, compressed, with a very large, claviform radicle, 
and two large, foliaceous cotyledons, full of nerves, plaited, 
depressed, and applied to the radicle; the colour of the 
embryo is white, except the nerves of the cotyledons, which 
are rose-coloured.”’ ‘ 
M. Porreav, when speaking of the groupe (his Order) of 
Lecyruipex in the “ Mém. du Mus.,’”’ characterizes the 
plants which compose it as “ Trees or Shrubs of the Equa- 
torial regions, which have leaves simple and alternate, and 
the flowers racemose, remarkable for their size, their beauty, 
and the singularity of their structure; but of which no in- 
dividual has blossomed in France, nor perhaps © pep 
f we consider the vast size to which the subject | the 
Present description arrives, we despair of ever seeing it flou- 
rish in any extra-tropical region, and we cannot but feel 
greatly indebted to the Rev. L. Guripine, who has enabled 
Us to give a figure with many details of this plant, than 
Which none more curious or interesting has graced our 
Pages. It is an inhabitant and one of the greatest orna- 
Ments of the dense forests of Cayenne, flowering at all 
Seasons of the year, where it is not unfrequentl concealed 
from view by a mass of the Spanish Long-beard (Ti1- 
LANDSIA 
