Dr. Walker-Arnott on Samara Iseta, Linn. 369 



busdam rotundis {post in aqud macerationem conspicue) notata, ] -2-uncialia, 2^-2^-pld 

 longiora quam lata. Petiolus sub-bilinearis. Flores 5-7 in corymbulum vel racemum 

 brevem aodllarem pedunculatum, folio S-i-plo breviorem digesti. Pedicelli sublineares, 

 bracteold dimidio breviore oblongo-lanceolatd glandulis notata margine hinc inde cilio- 

 latd basi instructi, laves vel pilis glanduliferis paucis. Pedunculi \-2-lineares. 



I should suppose, then, that no doubt can now exist as to the proper place 

 for Samara, and also that Choripetalum of M. Alph. DeCandolle must be con- 

 sidered a synonym. The only difference is in the inflorescence : in Samara Iceta 

 we find the raceme contracted into a kind of little corymb ; in Choripetalum 

 the raceme is elongated. In Choripetalum undulatum Dr. Wallich finds only 

 two ovules, precisely as in the ovaries of S. Iceta which I examined ; but in 

 Wight's fructiferous specimen, correctly, as I think, referred by M. Alph. 

 DeCandolle to Ch. aurantiacum, there appear to me indications of a greater 

 number, but I do not yet quite understand the structure of its seed: in that 

 plant, too, the rachis of the spike (for the pedicels are too short to permit 

 it to be called a raceme) becomes woody in the female plant as the fruit 

 ripens, resembling a short branch : its leaves are extremely variable, some- 

 times oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, and acute, sometimes elliptical and obtuse. 

 The only positive character by which this genus can be separated from Emhelia 

 lies in the quaternary, not quinary, parts of the flower ; perhaps the aestiva- 

 tion may also slightly differ; and it is not improbable that all the species 

 exhibit the stamens elongated in some of the male flowers : but upon these 

 latter points we have as yet no good information. As however I am of opi- 

 nion that the relative length of the stamens and petals is not of specific 

 importance, I am inclined to distinguish the four species hitherto discovered 

 shortly as follows : — 



S. lata, florlbus corymbosis, bracteis pedicello duplo brevioribus, petalis intus glabris, foliis 



membranaceis planis*, 

 S. Imta, L., Sw., &c. 

 Hah. In Chinaf. 



* I do not see how Choripetalum obovatum, Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. of Bot. i. p. 490, diiFers, 

 but I have not had an opportunity of examining the specimens collected at Hong-Kong by Mr. Hinds : 

 they are obviously the female. — April 3rd, 1847. 



t I have no doubt that all the Linnean specimens of S. lata were collected in China, and perhaps by 

 Osbeck, and not in India strictly so called. 



3 c 2 



