\ 



SOUTH AMERICAN PLANTS. 49 



■ 



and details there given having been furnished by their draughts- 

 man Tafalla, who probably never looked to the structure of- the 

 fruit, concluding the plant to be similar to the other species of 



unknown 



descriptions, and may therefore be doubted as appertaining to 

 that genus. 



In all the specimens I have examined belonging to the genus 

 Cacabus, the ovarium is 2-celled, with a slender membranaceous 

 dissepiment, along the axile line of which, the free placentae are 

 respectively attached at right angles ; these are furcated and 

 fleshy, extending near to the walls of the pericarp, so that when 

 the fruit is cut open, the dissepiment being scarcely visible, the 

 placentations, with the attached seeds, appear disposed in a some- 

 what cruciform shape, seemingly as if the berry were 4-locular. 

 The fruit, according to L'Heritier {loc. cii.), is a berry with an 

 aqueous juice, as in Nicandra, and which, upon becoming dry, 

 leaves a subcapsular, brittle, valvelcss shell, and which is bilocular 

 with a membranaceous partition : as in Physalis, this berry is in- 

 closed within a much larger ventricose calyx. Upon the summit 

 of the ovarium and of the immature berry is seen a small flattened 

 prominent gland, out of which the style originates : this bears 



Hy 



epigynou 



peculiar mode of dehiscence in the fruit of that genus; but in 

 Cacahus there is no such opercular dehiscence, although the 

 gland is visible in the apex of the cells after the opening of the 

 pericarp j a similar disc exists also in Thinogeton. I propose for 

 this ffenus the foUowiner character : 



^V.^X^O UX^V. XV/XX^>VlXlwj 



Cacabus, BernL — Cahjx ventricosus, urceolato-subglobosus, 

 membranaceus, inflatus, 10-angularis, 5-dentatus, dentibua 

 insequalibus, acutis, ercctis, angulis nervosis, persistens et ac- 

 crescens. Corolla campanulata, tubo imo breviter coarctato, 

 subito ampliato, limbo campanulato,magno, margine explanato, 

 subintegro, sinuato-pentangulari, 15-ner\d, nervis in angulis 

 ternatim parallclis, sestivatione ignota. Stamina 5, inclusa, 

 fere a^qualia -, filament a ad coarctationem tubi adnata, filiformia ; 

 anthene ovales, erectae, 2-lobse, lobis parallele adnatis, margine 

 lougitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium ovatum, substipi- 

 tatum, apice glandulo parvo carnoso donatum, 2-loculare, pla- 

 centis dissepimentotenuissimoutrinque adnatis, cruciatim dis- 

 positis, et demum divaricatim 2-fidis, multiovulatis. Stylus 

 filiformis, longitudine staminum. Stigma elongatum, 2-lameI- 

 latum, lobis crassis subconniventibus intus stigmatosis. Bacca 

 intra calycem auctum^ vesiciformem, venoso-membranaceum, 



VOL. II. 



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