AMERICAN SPECIES OF MYRISTICA. 3 
tusis vix acuminatis basi rotundatis subtus glaucis vix tomentellis, 
paniculis ramosis laxiusculis, calyce profunde trifido, antheris 3, co- 
lumna filiformi pluries brevioribus, fructu globoso glabro. 
The male specimens were gathered from a tree of about sixty feet, 
with the trunk two feet in diameter. The leaves, which are not yet 
fully grown, are from 33-5 inches long, scarcely an inch wide, and 
very copiously dotted with minute transparent dots, with a few small 
stellate hairs scattered on the under surface, the veins very divergent 
and not strongly marked; the petiole 2-3 lines long. The panicles (as 
in all the American species, covered with a short rusty down) are about — 
half the length of the leaves, with very divaricate branches and not very - 
crowded ochraceous sweet-scented flowers. The bracts small and orbi- 
cular; the calyx very small with deeply cleft recurved lobes. These 
specimens were gathered by Mr. Spruce, in October, in the forest at - 
the mouth of the Rio Negro, in North Brazil. The fruiting specimens, 
which appear to me to belong to the same species, were gathered near 
Barra in February, from a slender tree of about 35 feet, branching only 
at the top. The full-grown leaves are 6-8 inches long, firm and more 
orless complicated and keeled by the prominent midrib; the lateral 
veins are more prominent, and, owing to the thickened texture, the — 
minute pellucid dots can only be seen with a strong light. The in- 
florescence is the same as in the males, The drupe-like fleshy capsules 
about 9 lines in diameter, of a glaucous-green when fresh; aril scarlet. - 
2. M. venosa, sp. n.; foliis petiolatis ellipticis vix acuminatis basi ro- 
tundatis acutisve aj glaucis venis valde obliquis, novellis vix to- _ 
mentosis, panieulis brevibus parce ramosis, calyce profunde trifido, 
antheris 3 oblongis columns parte nuda brevioribus. : 
This was a slender tree of about 20 feet, Leaves 4—6 inches long, 
2-2$ inches broad, more or less blunted at both extremities, or some- 
times slightly acute, but never narrowed into a long point; the parallel 
veins are much more oblique and longer than in the other species. The 
male panicles about an inch long, the small flowers nearly sessile ; de 
staminal column slender, but not so long as in M. carinata. 
Found by Mr. Spruce in the Capoeiras, near Barra, in March. 
3. M. officinalis (Mart. Reise, vol. i. p. 343); foliis petiolatis oblongis 
v. ovato-oblongis acuminatis basi rotundatis ibidemque revolutis et 
in petiolum decurrentibus novellis subtus tomentosis, paniculis bre- 
vibus racemiformibus, antheris 3-6 oblongo-linearibus columnee parti 
