FLORA NIGRITIANA. 533 
supra vaginam longam 1-2 lin. longo. Panicula ex apice 
vaginz folis summi exserta, folio brevior. Bractee an- 
guste, pollieares, patentes. Pedunculi filiformes, plerique 
bilori. Flores omnium minimi. Sepala 14 lin. longa, 
acuta, striata. Petala tubo stamineo breviter adnata, 
sepalis subdimidio longiora. Tubus stamineus lineam lon- 
Bus. Staminodia 2 exteriora obovata, breviter unguicu- 
lata, obliqua, apice concava subcucullata, uno altero paullo 
majore; tertium carinato-concavum, lobo majore apice con- 
Cavo, minore plano intus tamen sub apice transverse ap- 
pendiculato, 2 interiora valde ineequalia, lineari-cuneata, 
altero apice cucullato. Anthera unilocularis, filamento ad 
apicem tubi staminei inserto. Stylus colummaris, apice cu- 
eullato-ineurvus. Capsula obovoideo-triquetra, pallide lutea, 
trilocularis, trivalvis, rarius loculo uno alterove abortiente. 
Semina in loculis solitaria, globoso-triquetra, badia, levia, 
breviter arillata. 
The genus Pkhrynium, to include the above three species, 
must also comprehend the greater number of the Calathee of 
modern authors, though perhaps not the original Calathea of 
G. F. W. Meyer, if correctly described. The petaloid sterile 
stamens or s/aminodia of Nees (inner corolla, nectarium and 
labellum of other authors) are always very irregular in their 
form, size and degree of connection with each other and with 
the fertile stamen, very difficult to observe accurately in dried 
specimens, and consequently only well known in a very few 
Species, scarcely ever similar in two different species, and appa- 
rently variable in some cases, in different flowers in one species. 
‘hese differences cannot therefore be available for generic dis- 
tinctions, and all the Cannee with 3-celled ovaries, solitary 
ovules, columnar style and 3-valved capsule may be referred to 
Phrynium, The inflorescence, which will be most probably 
found to be connected with other differences, will characterize 
the most natural sectional groups. 
There are two other specimens without flowers which may 
Possibly be species of Phrynium, one from Sierra Leone in 
Don's colleetion, in leaf only; the other, gathered at Abóh 
