236 Mr. Bentuam’s Observations on some Genera of Plants 
Hab. in Guiana Anglica ad flumen Essequebo. Schomburgk! Pl. exs. 
n. 348. 
Frutex scandens. Folia 5—7-pollicaria. Paniculæ terminales ample, axillares 
divaricatæ. Flores majores quam in praecedentibus, luteo-virides. 
6. S. foliosa, stipulis spinescentibus recurvis, foliis petiolatis ovatis obtuse 
| acuminatis, paniculis terminalibus paucifloris basi foliatis. 
Hab. in Guiana Anglica. Schomburgk! Pl. exs. n. 661. 
Folia 13—2-pollicaria. Inflorescentia ab omnibus diversa. 
* 
7. S. americana (Linn. Sp. p. 747. ), ab omnibus differre videtur, foliis apice 
emarginatis. 
3. ANTHODISCUS. 
The genus Anthodiscus was established by G. F. W. Meyer in his Primitiæ 
Flore Essequeboensis, p. 193, for a Guiana tree, which he places in Icosandria 
on account of the insertion of the stamina: “annulo calycino germen cin- 
gente.” He compares it in that class with some Myrtaceæ, with Acacia, and 
with Phytolacca; but in a natural arrangement it differs widely from the first 
in its free ovarium, from Acacia in its polycarpous structure, from Phytolacca 
by the dichlamydeous perigonium. Since Meyer, it appears to have been 
generally overlooked, not being mentioned by De Candolle either amongst 
his Thalamiflore or amongst the polypetalous Calycifloræ, and being entirely 
omitted by Bartling, Lindley and others in their enumerations of genera. 
Sprengel took it up, however, in his Systema, and Meisner introduces it into 
his Generic Tables as a spurious Rosaceous plant, allied also in its (imper- 
fectly known) fruit to Phytolacca. 
Amongst Schomburgk's specimens is one which answers so well in external 
characters to Meyer's description of his Anthodiscus trifoliatüs, that I bave 
little doubt of its being the same species, more especially, as I find a similar 
specimen in Dr. Lindley's herbarium, proceeding, I believe, from Mr. Parker's 
Demerara collection. "These specimens differ, however, from Meyer's charac- 
ter in some points of structure, perhaps not much attended to at that time, 
but which are now of considerable importance in a natural arrangement. 
The disk from which the stamens arise is hypogynous, not perigynous,—a cir- 
cumstance that removes the plant at once from Rosacem; and the general 
