98 NOTES ON HUMIRIACESR. 
three, notwithstanding the recent recognition of Vantanea of Aublet as 
belonging to the group. For Helleria of Martius can by no means be 
distinguished from it, a cireumstance very likely to have escaped that 
eminent botanist, since Vantanea, owing to Aublet's having overlooked 
the enlarged connectivum, and to other inaccuracies in his drawing, has 
until lately been referred to very different families. 
These genera may be shortly distinguished by the following cha- 
racters :— 
VANTANEA. Stamina numerosa (15 ad 150). Flores majusculi in 
cymas terminales dispositi. 
Humirium. Stamina 20 (5 majora interdum triantherifera). | Flores 
parvi, in cymas laterales v. subterminales dispositi. 
SacoaLoTTIs. Stamina 10 (interjectis rarius filamentis nonnullis 
anantheris). Flores parvi in cymas laterales dispositi. 
I. VANTANEA, ubl.— Helleria, Mart. 
Petala elongata. Stamina numerosa, basi breviter et irregulariter con- 
nata. Discus annulatus, integer v. breviter dentatus. Ovula in lo- 
culis seepius 2, collateraliter affixa, sed altero a funiculo pendente, in 
loculo superposita. Cyme terminales, corymbosz, multiflora. 
1. V. Guianensis (Aubl. Pl. Gui. p. 572. t. 229); glaberrima, foliis ovatis 
breviter et obtuse acuminatis, calyce truneato minute dentato (de- 
mum fisso), petalis longe linearibus glabris, connectivo loculos vix 
superante. 
On the river Aroura in French Guiana (Aublet), and found by the 
Schomburgks on the river Cutaré, or western branch of the Corentyn, 
in British Guiana. My specimen is from a small separate collection 
of Sir Robert Schomburgk, but I have seen it elsewhere with the 
n. 982. 
Described by Aublet as a tree of 15 to 20 feet, by Schomburgk as 
“ attaining the height of 75 feet, with a circumference, one foot from 
the ground, of 5 feet, forming a beautiful appearance with its large 
clusters of red flowers." The leaves are generally about 4 inches long 
and 2 wide, with a very slightly dilated petiole. The calyx, at first 
nearly entire, often splits more or less deeply as the flowering advances. 
The flowers are nearly an inch long; the connectivum of the anthers is 
very much smaller than in the rest of the Order, and has been over- 
looked by Aublet’s artist ; it exists however in the usual conical shape; 
