142 THALAMIFLOR.E. 



tliers I'Celled, opening transversely at the apex, or 

 2- or even 4-celled. Ovary concealed by the tube, 

 distmct : style 1 : stigmata 1-3 : ovules erect. Fruit 

 either 3 samaroid carpels, or berried with from 1 to 3 

 cells. Seeds 4 or more in each cell, attached to the 

 axis in pairs, sometimes several of them abortive, 

 erect, exalbuminose. Embryo straight : radicle point- 

 ing towards the base : cotyledons flat, elliptico-ob- 

 long, somewhat fleshy, cohering when dry. 



Arborescent or climbing shrubs ; principally natives of South 

 America. The fruit of Tonsella pyriformis, a native of 

 Sierra Leone, about the size of a Bergamot pear, is said to 

 have a rich sweet flavour, and to be eatable : and the nuts of 

 HiPPOcRATEA coMOSA, a native of St Domingo, are, according 

 to Swartz (^Fl. Ind, Occ. I. 78.), sweet and oily. 



I. HiPPOCRATEA. 



Petals generally foveated at the apex. Stamens 3. 

 Anthers 1 -celled, transversely dehiscent. Carpels 3 

 (or by abortion 1-2) samaroid, bivalved, with the 

 valves keeled and very much compressed. Seeds 

 winged downwards, from the umbilical cord being 

 very much expanded. — De Cand. 



Named, by Plumier, in honour of Hippocrates, the celebrated 

 Greek physician. 



1 . * Hippocratea ovata ? Ovate-leaved Hippocratea. 



Carpels ovate, panicles axillary subdichotomous, 

 leaves oblongo-ovate or elliptic serrated. — De Cand. 



H. volubilis, Swartz, Ohs. 28 Robmson, in Lunans Hort. 



Jam. I. 373.— -H. paniculata, Roem. et Schultz, Mant. I. 396. — 

 H. ovata, Lam. III. I. 1 00. t. 28. f. 2. 



HAB. Near Cabaritta River Robinson. Near the fording 



at Ginger-Hall Works, St Thomas in the East. 



FL. Spring. 



A scandent shrub: branches opposite, stiff, arched, patent, 

 Leaves opposite, subcoriaceous, glabrous. Racemes terminal ; 

 divisions opposite. Flowers small, greenish-white, subsessile. 

 Carpels an inch in length. 



1 regret having omitted examining this plant in a more par- 

 ticular manner. 



