376 ON OPHIOCARYON PARADOXUM. 
rected the attention of naturalists to a curious fruit, a drupa, 
the kernel of which, when opened, and the membrane which 
covered it, being removed, displayed the striking resemblance 
of a snake coiled up.* : 
I was not then able to procure the blossoms of the tree which 
produces this strange fruit, in such an advanced state as to 
permit me to describe it with accuracy ; they were merely 
small buds, at that time, which left much to conjecture, and 
thus I was misled to consider the tree as belonging to the 
order Terebinthacee, standing near Anacardice. 1 have since 
succeeded in procuring flowers in perfection, and am now 
enabled to give the following description of the botanical 
character of this tree, in which I have been much assisted by 
Mr. Bentham. 
OPHIOCARYON, Schomb. in Endlicher, Gen. Plant. Suppl. |; 
p- 1425. 
ORD. Nat. SAPINDACEÆ. 
Char. Gen.— Flores polygamo-dioici ? masculi desunt. 
Hermaphrodito-feminei: Sepala 5, valde imbricata, orbi- 
cularia ; 2 exteriora lateralia minora, posticum cum anticis 
inter se subzequalia. Petala 5, valde imbricata, gynophoro 
brevi crasso, sub staminibus inserta, orbicularia; 3 exte- 
riora (postica cum antico) sepalis interioribus paullo 
majora, 2 interiora sepalis subæqualia. Gynophorum sub 
ovario paullo incrassatum, staminiferum. Filamenta 5; 
sterilia, brevissima, subulata, petalis alterna, 3 petalis exte- 
rioribus opposita, squamæformia, petalis 2-3 poll. breviora, 
obovato-spathulata, uno paullo majore obcordato. Sta- - 
mina (fertilia?) duo, petalis interioribus opposita, et US — 
sub breviora; filamentis dilatato-cuneiformibus; anthera 
continua erecta; connectivo erecto apiculato ; loculis duobus 
* Dr. Schomburgk is not, perhaps, aware that this fruit is actually sent — 
to Europe from South America, as a vegetable curiosity, under the name 
of the ** Snake-seed” :—and this is the first account we have of the pue 
which produces it.—Ep. : 
