12 REPORT ON THE PLANTS 
of this plant is as yet very uncertain. With the habit and petals of a 
Byttneria, it has been placed in the neighbourhood of Celastracea, on 
account of the position of the stamens, alternating with the petals, 
whilst the ovary again brings it nearer to Byttneriee. These speci- 
mens are in good flower and young fruit, but I have as yet seen none 
ripe enough to ascertain the structure of the seed; that of the flowers . 
is as follows :— ; 
Calyr persistens, profunde 5-fidus, laciniis breviter triangularibus 
æstivatione imbricatis., Petala 5, hypogyna, æstivatione valvata, 
apicibus linearibus introflexis. Stamina 5; filamenta in tubum (seu 
discum) hypogynum cupulæformem margine sinuatum connata; 
antheræ ad marginem cupulæ sessilia, cum petalis alternantia, con- 
nectivo crasso pilis paucis reflexis hispido, loculis subglobosis, apice 
discretis, ad basin connectivi lateraliter insertis, rima brevi dehis- 
centibus. Ovarium sessile, depresso-globosum, stylis 5 brevibus 
stellatim divaricatis coronatum, 5-loculare; ovuła in quoque loculo 
plurima, e basi axeos centralis erecta v. horizontalia, anatropa. Bacca 
parva, globosa, abortu 2—3-locularis, oligosperma. Semina erecta, 
ovoidea, in specimine adhuc immatura. : 
The only Rhamnea is the following species of Gouania from Barra, 
which does not agree with any published description, short and un- 
. satisfactory as the characters of most of the described species are. The 
\ ripe fruit is known but of very few species of the genus, but, as far as 
. known, seems to indicate its division into two groupes, one with the 
. fruit more or less 3-winged, the other with a globose pyriform fruit 
scarcely even angled. The present species belongs to the former: 
one set of specimens from a climber covering the top of a large tree, 
with what appeared to be clusters of purple blossoms, proved, when 
Mr. Spruce had cut down the tree to obtain them, to be in ripe fruit 
Only, with broad thick wings; a few specimens from another plant, 
evidently thé same species, have younger fruit, scarcely winged at all, 
or with narrow and very thick wings, although the seeds are fully 
formed and nearly ripe. The degree of development of the wing 
is probably, therefore, in this genus as in Dodonea, a character of 
very secondary importance and liable to vary in the same species. 
. Gouania discolor, sp. n. ; foliis ovatis obtusis glanduloso-pauciserratis 
basi subcordatis supra glabriusculis nitidis subtus albidis minute 
. tomentellis, capsulis trialatis.—rutez alte scandens, caule augulato. 
* 
