18 MR. J. MIERS ON NAPOLEONA, 
origin, and, excepting the contour of its corolla, 1 presents quite another aspect, and a 
floral structure different in every respect. Only one species is recorded. 
1. ASTERANTHOS BRASILIENSIS, Desf. Мет. Mus. vi. p. 9, tab. 3; D'C. Prodr. vii. 551. 
In Brasilia et Venezuela: v. s. in hb. тео et alior. Rio Guainia (Spuce, 3500). 
The plant above quoted is one of the gems of Dr. Spruce's invaluable collection ; it was 
found by him on the banks of the river Guainia, the main branch of the Rio Negro, 
about 60 miles within the confines of Venezuela, and therefore not in Brazilian territory. 
It is probably a species distinct from Desfontaine's; for the latter has smaller leaves, 
larger flowers, a broader and deeper calyx, more resembling * the cup of an acorn," has 
much longer stamens, an ovary said to be inferior, with a 6-rayed vertex, and a stouter 
style and stigma. Spruce’s plant is apparently a shrub, with upright alternate branches, 
the axils being 3 in. apart; alternate leaves, oblong, subacute at base, with a long, 
narrow, obtuse acumen, their undulated margins subrevolute, especially towards the 
petiole; they are dull above, with nerves wholly immersed, pruinosely opaque and paler 
beneath, veinless, with a slightly raised midrib ; 23-81 in. long, 1-13 in. broad, on petioles 
llinelong. Тһе inflorescence consists of a solitary flower in each axil, articulated on a 
short gemmiform nodule, bearing a minute bract; the pedicel is slender, erect, 9 lines 
long; the calyx is orbicular, very depressed, 12 line broad, 5 lines in diameter, its con- 
eave margin cut into about 16 blunt short teeth, each terminating in a curving bristle. 
The corolla is a circular, depressed, membranaceous cup, plicated in sstivation, as in 
Cordia; expanded, it is 21 in. in diameter, with an upturned margin, divided into 24 
short roundish teeth, sparsely and setosely ciliated on their margins, and they correspond 
with as many fine nerves radiating from the centre, the intervening spaces being reticu- 
lated with fine veins; it is of а dull yellow colour when dry; it is attached by its per- 
forated centre to the margin of a narrow, circular, annular, epigynous disk, 3 lines in 
diameter. Тһе disk supports very numerous stamens, all quite free from the corolla, in 
three ог four series of different lengths; the very close slender filaments are straight, the 
outer series 3 lines, the inner row 2 lines long, each bearing a linear-oblong, 2-celled 
anther, bursting by lateral sutures, introrsely and dorsally fixed on the curving apex of 
the filament, a little above the base; the ovary is quite superior, rising within the disk 
in а сопіса! deeply 8-ribbed vertex, surmounted by a subulate slender style, 3 lines 
long, terminating in a capitate hollow stigma, with an 8-toothed margin; the ovary has 
eight cells opposite the ribs, each with а prominent placenta emanating from the axis, 
and charged with several collateral ovules, arranged in about three superposed series, 
with the raphes of the anatropous ovules facing each other. Тһе fruit is unknown. 
This structure is so widely different from that of Napoleona that Asteranthos cannot 
possibly remain in contiguity with it; the calyx is quite dissimilar in form, and has 
another xstivation; its flower presents no trace of the corona which forms such a 
peculiar feature in Napoleona; there is no analogy in the form, structure, or position of . 
the stamens; the ovary is superior, with a long slender style, and an extremely dissimilar 
stigma; in fine, there is no single point of resemblance of its parts except in the orbicular 
shape of its corolla, an adventitious feature of weak value (insufficient to establish any 
