HUMIRIACEiE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 104. 



HUMIRIUM. 



Calyx 5-cleft. Petals 5. Fertile stamens 20; filaments mona- 

 delphous at the base ; anthers with an appendage at the apex, 

 and distant cells. Sterile stamens about half the number, sur- 

 rounding the base of the ovary in the form of hypogynous scales. 

 Stigma with 5 rays. Drupe with an 8-celled stone ; of which 

 the cells are 1 -seeded, 4 cells being placed over the other 4. 



311. H. floribundum Mart. gen. and sp. pi. ii. 145. t. 199. — 

 Various parts of Brazil. 



A tree 20 — 30 fett high. Branches slightly winged, purplish brown. 

 Leaves alternate, obovate or oblong, obtuse, obscurely emarginated, 

 narrowing into a very short petiole. Cymes axillary, on long stalks 

 little shorter than the leaves. Flowers small. Calyx with rounded 

 lobes. Petals white, erect, lanceolate, obtuse. Anthers fringed, with 

 a tongue-shaped appendage much longer than the lobes. Hvpogynous 

 scales bifid, adhering into a toothed cup. Drupe 4-5 hnes lonj, 

 purple, with a soft sweet eatable flesh. — This plant, the Umiri of the 

 people of Para, yields from its trunk when wounded a valuable, fragrant, 

 limpid, pale yellow balsam called Balsam of Umiri, possessing the same 

 medicinal qualities as Balsam of Copaiva, "immo nobihorem et balsamo 

 peruviano eemulum." JMartius. 



312. H. balsamiferum Aubl. 565. t. 225. — Alyrodendron am- 

 plexicaule Schreb. gen. No. 901. — A Guiana plant, with ovate 

 or ovate-oblong acute sessile half-amplexicaul leaves, yields a 

 similar balsam, which Aublet compares to that of Peru ; it is the 

 Houmiri or Touri of the Caribs. 



159 



