SOUTH AMERICAN . PLANTS. 69 
2 breviora; filamenta filiformia, basi dilatata, imo pube- 
scentes, superne glabra; anthere 9-loculares, basifixe, 
longitudinaliter dehiscentes. Ovarium sessile, 2-loculare, 
ovulis in loculis utrinque 8, in septi faciem juxta basin ad 
nervos 2 parallelos, 2-seriatim dispositis, adscendentibus, 
imbricatis, inferioribus exterioribus. Stylus simplex. Stigma 
2-lamellatum, laminis, crassiusculis margine revolutis. Cap- 
sula coriacea, lignosa, cylindracea, 9-locularis, apice septi- 
frage 2-valvis, dissepimento libero, valvis parallelis demum 
semi-bifidis. Semina 2-4 in quoque loculo, e dissepimenti 
basi adscendentia, longe linearia, utrinque acuminato-at- 
tenuata, margine ala membranacea cincta, ventre convexa, 
dorso carinata, hilo basali, testa chartacea ad endopleuram 
spongiosam adnata. Embryo in axi albuminis carnosi tenui 
rectus, cotyledonibus linearibus, radiculam cylindricam in- 
feram equantibus. Arbor Brasiliensis frondosa, foliis al- 
ternis breviter petiolatis, ellipticis, penninervis, valde reti- 
culatis, integerrimis, nitidis, floribus terminalibus, subso- 
litariis, vel plurimis subracemose fasciculatis, ebracteatis, 
speciosis, albis. 
1. Metternichia princeps, Mik. loc. cit. tab. 1. Char. ut. 
-supra.—Rio de Janeiro, v. v. 
This is a handsome tree, or shrub, with copious foliage of 
bright evergreen leaves and large conspicuous flowers. It is 
altogether perfectly glabrous. The leaves are about 3-4 
inches long, and 1% to 1} in. broad, upon a slender chan- 
nelled petiole of 4 lines; they are thin, and of a somewhat 
membranaceous texture, the margin being slightly revolute ; 
they have a reticulated yenation, and both surfaces under a 
strong lens appear minutely punctulated. The calyx is very 
thin, membranous, light green, very reticulately nerved, and 
unevenly cleft into 4-5-6 obtuse leaf-like segments of various 
length ; it is generally half an inch, sometimes nearly 1 in. 
jong. The corolla is white, 24 in. long, 1 in. broad in the 
mouth, and 2 in. across the border: the tube is slender at 
base, for about half an inch, when it suddenly swells into a 
long and somewhat campanular form, marked with many 
