M. Schomburgk on the Ant Tree of Guiana, 265 



parted ; petals three, lanceolate ; ovarium superior ; styles or 

 stigmas three ; alkenia triangular, protected by the calyx ; seed 

 farinaceous. 



Dr. Lindley, in his Natural System of Botany, in speaking 

 of the geographical distribution of Polygonece, observes, 

 "There are few parts of the world that do not acknowledge the 

 presence of plants of this order. In Europe, Africa, North 

 America, and Asia, they fill the ditches, hedges, and waste 

 grounds, in the form of Docks and Persicarias; the fields, 

 mountains, and heaths, as Sorrels and training and twining 

 Polygonums ; in South America and the West Indies they 

 take the form of Coccolabas or sea-side grapes ; in the Levant 

 of Rhubarbs ; and even in the desolate regions of the North 

 Pole they are found in the shape of Oxyria." 



The object of my description adds another instance to illus- 

 trate these remarks ; the Triplaris, which pronounces, in its 

 habits of growth, leaves, stipulae, its triangular nut protected 

 by the calyx, the farinaceous albumen, &c. its relationship to 

 that tribe, extends from Columbia to the verge of BraziPs west- 

 ern boundary. The sandy banks of the inland rivers of Guiana 

 are peopled with them 5 and when shrubs, stunted in growth 

 by the poverty of the soil, scarcely reach the height of five or 

 six feet, the Triplaris overtops them forty or fifty feet. The 

 trunk is slender and grows up straight, and its erect branches 

 form a pyramid. As already observed, it is unisexual, and the 

 flowers of both sexes are insignificant: those of the male last 

 only for a few days, when they dry up ; this is likewise the case 

 with the petals of the females : the segments of the calyx how- 

 ever continue to grow, changing in their growth from green 

 to white and vermilion, and become so attenuated that the 

 branched nerves are easily perceptible. In that state they are 

 three times as large as the fruit, which is still protected by the 

 tube of the calyx, and the whole might in appearance be re- 

 sembled to a shuttlecock. The risps are dense, and the tree 

 presents now a most elegant appearance. One unacquainted 

 with the contrary, would consider the tree covered with white 

 blossoms, tinged with red, among which the dark green leaves 

 have only occasionally room to make themselves visible. The 

 uncautious botanist, who, allured by the deceptive appearance, 



