14 - REPORT ON THE PLANTS 
These specimens remind one of some of the Asiatic Semecarpi, and, 
although not in flower, cannot be referred to any published genus, on 
account of the curious form of the seed. The fruit had probably its 
origin in a compound ovary with one fertile and several empty cells, 
which, with the habit, induce me to place the plant among Anacardieca. 
It formed a straight tree of forty feet or more, with a trunk of about 
a foot in thickness, in the forest near Barra, distilling a reddish gum. 
2. Mauria? (Tapirioides) multiflora, Mart. Herb. Fl. Bras. n. 1274 
(nomen absque descr.) ; abortu dioica, ramulis petiolis panieulisque 
minute ferrugineo-tomentellis, foliolis 5-11 oblongis obtuse acumi- 
natis basi obliquis glabris, paniculis masculis ramosissimis flori- 
bundis minutifloris, fæmineis oblongis paucifloris, stylis 4—5 brevissi- 
mis distinctis.—rüor ramosissima, 18-20-pedalis. Folia sepe 
pedalia; foliola opposita, breviter petiolulata, maxima 5 poll. longa, 
sepius 3 poll. v. paulo minora, acumine longiusculo obtuso, supra 
glaberrima nitidula, subtus pallida v. ferruginea, glabra v. ad venas 
pilis minutis puberula. Panicule mascule semipedales et longiores. 
Bractee minute, squameformes. Flores secus ramos ultimos fasci- 
culato-cymulosi, breviter pedicellati, expansi vix linea latiores. 
Calyx apertus, laciniis 5 orbiculatis obtusis. Petala ovata, calyce 
duplo longiora, demum reflexa, æstivatione leviter imbricata. 
Stamina 10, petala superantia, sub disco integro inserta, alterna 
breviora. Ovarii rudimentum hirsutum, disco impositum, in stylos 
breves 4-5 divisum. Panicule feminee multo breviores et minus 
ramosæ, Flores paulo majores.  Calyz, petala et stamina marium, 
hee tamen tenuiora antheris effetis. Ovarium glabrum, ovoideum, 
. earnosum, obtusum, coronatum, stylis 4—5 brevissimis crasse capitato- 
 stigmatosis; intus uniloculare. Ovxlum unicum e funiculo parieti 
. eavitatis adnato suspensum. Drupa ovoidea, fere 6 lin. longa, 
. obtusa, stylorum vestigiis vix umbilicata, nigra, pericarpio pulposo 
. dulci, endocarpio crustaceo. Semen pendulum, fructu conforme ; 
. testa tenuis ; cotyledones crasso-carnosæ, plano-convexæ, apice (quoad 
fructum infera) in acumen radiculæforme accumbenti-inflexum pro- — 
. ducts. Radicula supera brevissima. 
This tree, found by Mr. Spruce equally abundantly i in wet and dry 
situations on the Amazon, appears to be very common in various parts 
. of Guiana and Brazil, and can hardly have escaped the notice of earlier 
botanists; yet I am unable to identify it with certainty with any but 
Martius’s plant, distributed in the ‘Herbarium Flore Brasiliensis,’ 
