OMPHALOCARPUM, AND ASTERANTHOS. 15 
glomerate, irregularly interwoven in two series; these nodules are easily separable in the 
fresh state, but afterwards become solidified and compact: the central space is divided 
into about 20 narrow cells by dissepiments, which radiate around a large hollow orbiform 
ligneous axis, which is internally smooth and polished : the placental angle of each cell 
thus inclines upwards and outwards, and bears a single seed attached to it by a long 
linear caruncle or scar. This seed is oblong, very compressed, much thinner towards 
the margins, rounded on three sides, but straight along the whole ventral edge, and there 
marked by a pale opaque soft caruncula, as in Sapota, where it is called by DeCandolle 
the umbilieus, but by Gaertner the umbilical area, to distinguish it from the true 
umbilieus always seen on one of its extremities, as figured in his plate 203, and so 
described in his text under Lucuma, Sapota, Chrysophyllum, Sideroxylon, Mimusops, and 
Imbricaria; in the present instance the hilum is seen at its lower extremity, like an 
oval hole divided by a septum, the remaining part being filled with the ascending raphe, 
terminating at the opposite extremity in a small foramen, which it perforates to terminate 
in the apical chalaza. The testa is polished externally, is rather thick, very hard, 
osseous, dark brown, expanded at each ventral angle into a short hooked rostrum, the 
lower one marked by a transverse chink (the micropyle); the inner integument is 
brown, chartaceous, and adheres firmly to the inside of the testa. Іп the only seed 
I was able to examine, the thinnish albumen alone was present, the enclosed embryo 
being abortive or decayed; but this is well figured by Palisot, who figures it as con- 
sisting of 2 large thin foliaceous cotyledons, united at their base by a small inferior 
radicle. 
The genus is thus seen to agree remarkably with Sapota in the structure of its flower, 
of its fruit, and especially in that of its seeds; indeed it differs from the latter only in its 
large umbilicated fruit with а hard ligneous pericarp, having a large hollow axis. I will 
here record the two following species. Я 
1. OMPHALOCARPUM PROCERUM, Pal. Beauv. Fl. Owar. i. p. 6, tab. 5 et 6; R. Brown, Prodr. 
p.529; Poir. Dict. Suppl. iv. p. 140, tab. 966; DeCand. Prodr. viii. 208: arbor 
comosa, trunco altissimo, ramis patentibus, ramulis diffusis: foliis alternis, sessili- 
bus, lanceolatis, integris, glabris, supra nitidis: floribus solitariis vel pluribus 
fasciculatis, sessilibus, e trunco nascentibus, hermaphroditis?; sepalis 10 (quorum 
4-5 forsan bracteis?), valde imbricatis, ovato-rotundis, concavis, extus sericeo- 
villosis; petalis 6-7, oblongis, margine undulatis, glabris, imo longe unguiculatis, 
unguibus ad discum tubulosum perigynum petalis triplo breviorem agglutinatis, 
eorolla hine pseudo-monopetala ; staminibus in phalangibus 6-7 petalis oppositis 
margini disci insertis, filamentis tenuibus, antheris oblongis, cum connectivo subu- 
lato exserto ; staminodiis 6-7, singulatim inter quidque petalum disco insertis, petalis 
3plo brevioribus, oblongis, membranaceis, margine fimbriatis ; ovario supero, depresse 
globoso, multiloculari; stylo subulato-tereti, petalis breviore, persistente; stig- 
mate capitato, aspero: fructu permagno, indehiscente, orbiculari, valde depresso, 
plurisuleato, apice profunde umbilicato, extus turgide tuberculato; регісатріо 
duro, crasso, e concretionibus majusculis confecto, radiatim pluriloculari; semini- 
