CRESCENTIA, PARMENTIERA, AND KIGELIA. 269 



Revision of the Genera Crescentia, Parmentiera, and Kigelia ; 



5y Berthold Seemann, Ph.D., F.L.S, 



In a paper read last winter before the Linnean Society of London, 

 I divided the Order Crescentiacece into two sections {Tancecie^ and 

 Crescentie^E), I now beg to offer a revision of the genera composing 

 the latter section (Cresceniiete), all of which are characterized by a de- 

 ciduous, irregular, spathaceous, or bi-parted calyx. In this revision 

 the number of species will be found considerably reduced. To show 

 that this reduction is not owing to any extravagant theoretical views 

 I might be suspected of holding on the limits of species, I shall pro- 

 ceed to give my reasons for making the changes to which I have al- 

 luded. I may also remark, that I have observed the plants here dis- 

 cussed, with the exception of one (Parmeniiera edulis, DC.)? in a living 

 state, either in their native country or in European gardens ; and that 

 I have examined dried specimens of all of them in the herbaria of 

 Linnaeus, Hooker, Bentham, the Linnean Society, and the British Mu- 

 seum, and obtained besides information concerning them in the shape 

 of tracings and descriptions from various botanical friends. 



De Candolle has enumerated (Prod. ix. 246. sq.) nine species of 

 Crescentia {C. Cujete, L., C. cunei/oUa, Gard., C. acuminata, H.B.K., 

 C. cucurbitina, L., 0. edulis, Desv., C. aculeata, H.B.K., C. alata, H.B.K., 



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Tussac); and our gardens contain anotlier one {C. niacrophylla. Seem.) ; 

 in all, twelve. The species upon which the genus Crescentia was 

 founded is C. Cujete, Linn., distinguished from all others by its fascicu- 

 late leaves, all of which are simple, and its fruit, the shell of which is 

 so hard that it can only be broken by the application of an axe or some 

 other sharp instrument. To this species I have added as a synonym 

 C. cuneifolia, Gard., as the latter is in no way distinct from the former, 

 some of the specimens in Linnceus's own herbarium having leaves the 

 underside of which is slightly pubescent, as those of C. cuneifolia, Gard., 

 are ; and the difference about the fruit being spotted in the one (G Cujete, 

 Linn.), and not spotted in the other (C. cuneifolia, Gard.), amounts to 

 nothing, as the spots are generally observable in young fruits, and dis- 

 appear in the old ones. C. acuminata, H.B.K., which— misguided by 

 the term " fragile," applied to its fruit by De Candolle, a term not 



