NOTES ON HUMIRIACES. 99 
and slightly protrudes beyond the cells. Schomburgk describes the 
fruit as a drupe, the putamen of which is furrowed like a peach or 
apricot, and is by the Indians cut in half and worn round the neck as 
an ornament. 
2. V. minor, sp. n.; glabra, foliis obovatis v. obovato-oblongis obtusis, 
calyce breviter 5-lobo, petalis linearibus ovarioque glabris, connec- 
tivo loculos duplo superante.—Folia subsessilia, in specimine suppe- 
tente vix 2 poll. longa. Inflorescentia V. Guianensis, et flores pa- 
riter glabri sed minores (7-8 lin. longi). Calycis lobi orbiculato- 
truncati, ciliolati. Anthere parvee, loculis ad dimidium connectivi 
attingentibus. Discus ut in V. Guianensi annulatus, integer. Ovula 
in loculis gemina, collateraliter affixa, altero tamen a funiculo longo 
suspenso, in loculo superposita. 
Gathered by Sir Robert Schomburgk in his last expedition to 
British Guiana, but not, I believe, generally distributed. It is described 
as a shrub with white flowers slightly tinged with pink. 
3. V. obovata; foliis obovatis obtusis retusisve, inflorescentia floribusque 
extus pubescentibus, petalis oblongo-linearibus, ovario villoso.— Folia 
breviter petiolata, 2—5-pollicaria, coriacea, nitida. Oyme dense, flori- 
bundz, floribus vix 6 lin. longis——Helleria obovata, Mart. in Nov. 
Act. Nat. Cur. vol. xii. p. 40. t. 7. 
Occurs in various collections from the province of Minas Geraes. 
It is Gardner's n. 4452. 
4. V. ovalifolia; foliis ovatis, pedunculis hispidis, petalis tomentosis.— 
Helleria ovalifolia, A. de Juss. in St. Hilaire, Fl. Bras. Mer. vol. ii. 
p. 91. 
From the woods near Bomfin in the Minas Novas, province of Minas 
Geraes (A. de St. Hilaire). I have not seen this plant. A. de Jussieu 
says that the flowers of V. obovata are precisely the same as in this one, 
only with a much shorter and scarcer pubescence. Yet the petals of — — 
V. ovalifolia are said to be “ sesquipollicem fere longa;” can this be a 
misprint for semipollicem? — 
The stamens of Vantanea (Helleria) are said to be arranged into five 
fascicles alternating with the petals. I generally find the five outer 
stamens, alternating with the petals, rather larger than the rest, in all 
Humiriacee, but otherwise the arrangement into fascicles is so vague as 
to be scarcely perceptible in dried specimens, and has been omitted by — 
Martius in his amended character, Nov. Gen. et Sp. vol. ü. p.147. 
