OMPHALOCARPUM, AND ASTERANTHOS. | 13 
А very distinct species, marked by peculiar characters. It forms a slender tree, 12 feet 
high, with a trunk 1-21 in. thick, and with slender branchlets; its leaves, remarkable for 
their serrated margins, are generally 5 in. long, 2-23 in. broad, with about 7 pairs of nerves. 
Flower generally solitary, about the size of that of the typieal species: the calyx 
expanded is 1 in. across from point to point; the sepals 4 lines long, 3 lines broad at 
their insertion round the disk, which is 3 lines in diameter; the corolla is 12 in. in width, 
or 9 lines long from the line of its attachment to the circumference : the segments of the 
outer whorl of the corona are 43 lines long, $ line broad; the total length of the half- 
confluent segments of the intermediate whorl is 8 lines, the free portion being one half 
of this, or 4 lines; the segments of the inner whorl are 6 lines long, 1 line broad: the 
fertile anthers 2 lines long. Тһе fruit is 21 in. in diameter, 13 in. high: the seeds are 
1 т. long, 7 lines broad, 4j lines thick; they are of а pale red colour, with close yellow 
immersed glands; the transverse short radicle is completely embedded within the sub- 
stance of the cotyledons, close to the ventral sinus, which have no chink there, as in 
N. Whitfieldii, The tree was found in dense woods at Quitapo (Omnengue), between 
Ndelle and Rio Zuinha, in flower in May 1856, and in fruit at the end of June of the 
same year. 
After this critical examination of the several species, we can perceive nothing, either 
in the floral or carpological structure of Napoleona, that bears the slightest analogy to 
the Myrtacee ; it is equally irreconcilable with the Barringtoniee and the Lecythidacec. 
In order to trace its real affinity, we will compare with it Omphalocarpum, a genus 
derived from the same vicinity. 
9. OMPHALOCARPUM. 
This genus was first discovered by Palisot de Beauvais in 1787, in the same province 
"where he found Napoleona; but it was not described and figured till 1804', when he 
pointed out its affinity with Sapotacee. АП botanists since that time have accorded in 
this view °; but in 1862 Messrs. Bentham and Hooker, without adducing reasons, placed 
the genus in Terastremiacec?, and subsequently Prof. Oliver followed their example‘; 
but notwithstanding such high authorities, I venture to think there is little in its 
strueture conformable to that family, and an overwhelming amount of evidence to 
show that it is truly Sapotaceous. It forms lofty trees, with erect trunks; the leaves, 
not large, are approximated at the ends of the branches; the inflorescence generally 
issues out of the main trunk, or appears on the bare branches, rarely in the axils; the 
flowers, 3 to 6, usually spring from bracteolated tufts, and are mostly pedicellated, but 
in one species they are sessile; they are not very large, and are perhaps hermaphrodite 
in the typical species, but in the others they are more or less polygamous, as in other 
Sapotacee?. Of this we have parallel examples in that family where there is an 
г FL Owar. i. р. 6, tab. 5 et 6. 
* Lam. Dict. Suppl. iv. 140, tab, 966 ; Brown, Prodr. p. 529; De. Prodr. viii. 207; Endl. Gen. p. 741; Lindl. 
Veg. Kingd. р. 591; Hook, Niger Flora, р. 441. 
3 Gen. Plant. i. 185. * Flor. Afr. 171. 
* Miq. Monogr, Sapot. in Mart. Fl, Bras. fasc. xxxii. p. 38, where he says “ flores fere semper hermaphroditi." - 
