368 KORTH BKAZTLIAN EUPHOBBIACE.E 



lin. longis binis ternisve ad axillam bracteae sessilis, glandulis parvis 

 tomentellis et ideo vix conspicuis. Mores foeminei pauci. Sepala 

 ovata, obtusa, ovario breviora. Stylus profunde divisxis. 

 In the moist campos at SantarerUj R. Spruce. There are also in the 

 Hookerian Herbarium, from Pohl's collection, two specimens, probably 

 from difiFereut localities, as they bear different numbers (1699 and 

 1773*), which appear to be a mere variety {Pohliana) of the same spe- 

 cies, with more coriaceous leaves, more densely pubescent underneath, 

 and rather smaller flowers on shorter pedicels. 



The fruiting specimens of Mr. Spruce's, from Barra do Eio Negro, 

 n. 1324, distributed under the doubtful name of if. Taqmri, may 

 prove to be another paniculate species, but without the flowers they 

 cannot be satisfactorily determined, 



SiPHONlA. 



"This genus seems abundant throughout the Amazon and its tribu- 

 taries, but not all the species yield caoutchouc (or Xezingne, as it is 

 here called) of good quahty, those of the gapo and caatinga producing 

 a brittle gum in small quantity. The wood in all is soft, soon decay- 

 ing. The seeds are an excellent bait for fish. Macaws eat them 

 greedily, but to man and quadrupeds they are poisonous in a fresh 

 state. The Indians on the Uaupes render them eatable in this way : 

 after being boiled twenty-four hours, the liquor is strained off*, and the 

 mass that remains has something the colour and consistence of rice 

 long boiled. Eaten along with fish it is exceedingly savoury." — -R- 

 Sprtwey MS, 



Hitherto the specimens of these plants have been rare in our collec- 

 tions ; and as the only two writers who have described them at any 

 length, Aublet and Kunth, had only fruiting specimens before them, it 

 is difficult to identify the two published species. Presuming, however, 

 that the one we have from French Guiana is Aublet's, and that Willde- 

 now's S, Brasiliensis is the short-leaved Para one, which yields the best 

 caoutchouc, it seems probable that the one gathered by Humboldt and 

 Bonpland, and described by Kunth, is the more widely-diffused S. dis- 



* The nnmljers which the Brazifiau plants, chiefly Pohl's, distribnted by the Im- 

 perial Herbarium of Vieuaa, in 1837, bear iu the herbaria of Kewr, and some others, 

 are not those of Dr. Pohl's original tickets in the Vienna herbarium, but were given 

 on the occasion of the distribution, and intended to correspond with a list of the 

 localities where the specimens were collected, which however was never m&de out. 



