14 MR. J. MIERS ОМ NAPOLEONA, 
exuberant production of flowers, as in Mimusops. The sepals are 5, roundish, subcori- 
aceous, very imbricated, the 2 exterior nearly concealing the others in sestivation, as in 
Зароасее. The corolla is described by DeCandolle’ as gamopetalous and infundibuli- 
form, deeply cleft into 6 or 7 distinct segments : this, however, is not a correct definition ; 
for in reality there are 5 petals (in one species more), all furnished with cuneiform claws, 
which are firmly agglutinated upon the outer surface of a funnel-shaped thin disk, 
leaving the upper and broader portions apparently as so many free segments, which are 
erect, oblong, and somewhat imbricated on the margin: the proof of this is clearly shown 
on examining the outside of the tube, where we see the margins of the claws free, like 
so many very narrow wings, extending to the base, leaving narrow portions of the bare 
disk visible between them. The disk, as above shown, is tubular, as long as the claws of 
the petals, and agglutinated to them, just as occurs in Mimusops and Lucuma; and in 
like manner it supports upon its margin 5 sets of stamens, nearly the length of the free 
portion of the petals, and placed opposite to them in a single series; their filaments are 
straight and slender, very pointed and recurved at the summit, where they support each 
a versatile anther, composed of 2 long collateral cells, divergent at the base, and fixed 
extrorsely upon a fleshy connective, which is uncinately excurrent at the apex; if we cut 
this anther in its young state transversely, it appears 4-celled ; but аз the dehiscence takes 
place in the deep furrows, it is seen to be only 2-celled, each cell containing 2 parallel 
masses of cohering pollen grains; after bursting they become separated, then appearing 
oval and reticulated: the same number of filaments, similar in every respect, are seen in 
the 4 and % polygamous flowers, but they are antheriferous in the former and bare in 
the latter. Between these sets of fertile stamens, and alternate with the petals, are seen 
as many processes, strap-shaped below, widening upwards, where they are flabellately 
laciniated into about 7 setaceous segments, the middle one longest, attaining the length 
of the fertile stamens; these exactly resemble the so-called staminodes found in 
Mimusops, Lucuma, and Dipholis. The ovary is superior; in the с flower it is rather 
small, orbicular, fixed on a short stipitate support, depressed above, where it is marked by 
many radiating grooves, bearing in the centre an erect slender style, reaching the 
anthers, and terminated by a small many-lobed hollow stigma; it contains an irregular 
number of cells, each with а small ovule, probably all abortive; in the $ flower the 
ovary is larger, and fixed on a stipitate support, is many-grooved, and expands above 
gradually into a stout conical coriaceous style (as long as that of the g flower), obtuse at 
the summit, where it is hollow and many-lobed: when this style is cut transversely, we 
see there as many distinct channels as there are cells in the ovary, and descending into 
them; there are about 24 cells, radiating from a hollow central axis, with a single ovule 
in each cell, horizontally attached : all this agrees with the structure of Mimusops. The 
fruit is large (44—82 in. in diam., sometimes much larger), of a very depressed orbicular 
form, radiately suleated, umbilicated in the centre by a large hollow space, in the bottom 
of which the persistent style is seen : the indehiscent pericarp is 1-1 inch in thickness; 
the epicarp is hard and subligneous: the mesocarp, composed of many distinct, ovoid, 
subcompressed, grumous concretions (as in Labatia), like the nodules of a mineral con- 
* Prodr. viii. 287. 
