TWO AMERICAN SPECIES OF GNETUM. 357 



Another species lias been sent (No, 28), which appears to be closely 

 alHed to, or perhaps identical with, Phoragmicoma tumiduy N. and 

 M. ; but the stems are young and creeping, without any trace of fruc- 

 tification. 



Descrlpiion of Two American Species of Gnetum; by George - 



Bentham, Esq. 



(With Two Plates, Tab. II. and III.) 



But one species of South American Gnetum has been hitherto known : 

 the Tkoa ti7-ens o( Anhlet, first referred to G^/zf/^m by Brown, and quoted 

 under the name of G. nrens by Blume. Mr. Spruce's researches have 

 added two new species, of one of which complete specimens of both 

 sexes have enabled Mr. Fitch to give the accompanying Plates, the 

 dissections having been kindly supplied by Dr. Hooker. 



The structure of the flowers, both male and female, is so exactly 

 that of the Asiatic species of this curious genus, that nothing has to 

 be added to the accurate views first propounded by Brown, or to the 

 detailed descriptions or illustrations of Blume, Griffith, C. A. Meyer, 

 and Wight. Of the two coats which immediately enclose the nucleus 

 in the female flower, or the albumen in the fruit, the inner one, in the 

 American as in the Asiatic species, is extended at the apex, after fecun- 

 dation, into a style-like protruding process ; whilst the outer one re- 

 mains much shorter, and ultimately is little more than an outer scar at 

 the base of the seed, and these coats are universally admitted to belong 

 to the ovulum and seed. As to the third outermost coating of all, 

 which entirely encloses the ovulum and seed, it is at the time of flower- 

 ino- so nearly similar to the envelope which encloses the stamens in the 

 males, and when the seed is ripe so analogous in position and structure 

 to a pericarp, that it is impossible not to concur with Brown and C. A, 

 Meyer in considering it as either of involucral or perigonial origin,— 

 contrary to the opinion emitted by Blume, that it represents the ova- 

 rium, or the still less comprehensible theory of Griffith, that it is the 

 real outer membrane of the ovule or testa of the seed. 



The following are the characters of Mr. Spruce's two species : 

 1. Guetum panlculatum. Spruce, MS. ; dioicum, foliis ovatis rarius ellip- 



