Dr. WALKER-AnNoTT on Samara læta, Linn. 369 
busdam rotundis (post in aquá macerationem conspicue) notata, 1-2-uncialia, 25-23-plà 
longiora quam lata. Petiolus sub-bilinearis. Flores 5-7 in corymbulum vel racemum 
brevem azillarem pedunculatum, folio 3-4-plà breviorem digesti. Pedicelli sublineares, 
bracteold dimidio breviore oblongo-lanceolatá glandulis notatá margine hinc inde cilio- 
latá basi instructi, leves vel pilis glanduliferis paucis. Pedunculi 1-2-lineares. + 
I should suppose, then, that no doubt can now exist as to the proper place 
for Samara, and also that Choripetalum of M. Alph. DeCandolle must be con- 
sidered a synonym. The only difference is in the inflorescence : in Samara læta 
we find the raceme contracted into a kind of little corymb ; in Choripetalum 
the raceme is elongated. In Choripetalum undulatum Dr. Wallich finds only 
two ovules, precisely as in the ovaries of S. deta which I examined; but in 
Wight's fructiferous specimen, correctly, as I think, referred by M. Alph. 
DeCandolle to Ch. aurantiacum, there appear to me indications of a greater 
number, but I do not yet quite understand the structure of its seed: in that 
plant, too, the rachis of the spike (for the pedicels are too short to permit 
it to be called a raceme) becomes woody in the female plant as the fruit 
ripens, resembling a short branch: its leaves are extremely variable, some- 
times oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, and acute, sometimes elliptical and obtuse. 
The only positive character by which this genus can be separated from Embelia 
lies in the quaternary, not quinary, parts of the flower; perhaps the zestiva- 
tion may also slightly differ; and it is not improbable that all the species 
exhibit the stamens elongated in some of the male flowers: but upon these 
latter points we have as yet no good information. As however I am of opi- 
nion that the relative length of the stamens and petals is not of specific 
importance, I am inclined to distinguish the four species hitherto discovered 
shortly as follows :— | 
S. leta, floribus corymbosis, bracteis pedicello duplo brevioribus, petalis intüs glabris, foliis 
membranaceis planis *. 
S. leta, L., Sw., &c 
Hab. In Chinat. 
— 
* I do not see how Choripetalum obovatum, Benth. in Hook. Lond. Journ. of Bot. i. p. 490, differs, 
but I have not had an opportunity of examining the specimens collected at Hans Kong by Mr. Hinds: 
they are obviously the female.—April 3rd, 1847. 
t I have no doubt that all the Linnean specimens of S. leta were collected in i China, and perhaps by 
Osbeck, and not in India strictly so called. 
3c2 
