MR. BENTHAM ON TWO NEW GENERA OF BRAZILIAN PLANTS. 127 
first examined, but five, although very unequal in size. There are really five stamens, of 
which three are reduced to mere barren scales; all are opposite to the petals and inserted 
with them under å small five-lobed disk, and our plant must be sought for among the 
disk-bearing polypetalous families with compound leaves. The form and structure of 
the ovary remind at once of some Simarubaceæ, and if that family be extended as pro- 
posed by Planchon, it may well include Phoxanthus also. The stamens opposite the 
linear petals occur in Picrammia (whose place among Simarubacee is however doubted 
by Tulasne), and in the still more anomalous Alvaradoa ; the contortuplicate cotyledons, 
so remarkable in Phoxanthus, are also described in Picrodendron. The stamens, however, 
are very different in form from those which prevail in Simarubaceæ, and I have been 
unable to detect in our plant any of the bitter principle so universal in that family. The 
absence however cannot be absolutely ascertained from a dried specimen. The succulent 
pericarp is evidently very oily. 
Mr. Spruce describes Phoxanthus as a slender woody plant with a stem as thick as the 
arm, threading among trees to a great height, or, when standing alone, forming a small 
tortuous tree. The branches are distant, nearly simple, the lower ones near the ground 
alone flowering, and these have mostly simple leaves, whilst the upper barren branches 
have large pinnate leaves with three to nine leaflets often near a foot long. The flowers 
are small and numerous in large red panicles, the petals themselves being of a pale flesh 
colour. He gathered it in October 1852, in the forests of the Rio Uaupès, especially 
near the Falls of Panuré. 
PHOXANTHUS. 
Cnan. Gen.—Calyz brevis 5-fidus ; laciniis ovatis æstivatione imbricatis, 2 exterioribus vulgo minoribus, 
una interdum deficiente. Petala linearia, acutissima, basi dilatata, hypogyna. Stamina petalis 
opposita et cum iis sub disco hypogyno 5-lobo inserta ; 2 fertilia filamento brevissimo crasso, anthera 
biloculari, loculis connectivo crasso disjunctis rima transversali dehiscentibus ; 3 sterilia squamæformia. 
Ovarium subsessile, apice brevissime bilobum, lobis vertice stigmatosis, intus biloculare. Ovula in 
loculis gemina, versus apicem anguli interioris superposita pendula. Fructus drupaceus, abortu 
unilocularis, monospermus. Semen unicum, hilo lato juxta basin fructus affixum ; testa membranacea. 
Embryo exalbuminosus ; radicula crasso-carnosa incurva ad hilum spectans ; cotyledones insigniter 
contortuplicatæ. 
Species unica PHOXANTHUS HETEROPHYLLUS. Frutex alte scandens vel a 
subsimplices; inferiores floriferi juxta terram breves foliis plerisque simplicibus (unifoliolatis petiolo 
brevissimo); superiores steriles foliis imparipinnatis 3-9-foliolatis, petiolo 1-2-pedali. Stipulas non 
vidi. Foliola elliptico-oblonga, abrupte et anguste acuminata, basi rotundata v. acutiuscula, 6-12 — 
poll. longa, 3-4 poll. lata, coriacea, glabra, penninervia, impunctata. Paniculæ axillares, amplæ, 
laxæ, ramis divaricatis in vivo rubris, in sicco pube minuta rufescentibus. Flores parvi in ramulos 
ultimos thyrsoidei. Pedicelli vix semilineam longi, bractea minima suffulti. Calyx pedicello brevior, 
. campanulatus, laciniis membranaceis margine denticulatis. Petala valde inæqualia, majora 14-2 lin. 
longa. Æstivatio subvalvata videtur. Stamina fertilia petalis minoribus, sterilia majoribus opposita ; 
filamenta fertilium obovoidea ; anthera biglobosa, per anthesin introrsum incumbens, post pollinem 
ejectum ascendenti-erecta. Drupa 9-12 lin. diametro compressa subglobosa v. leviter incurva, ad 
insertionem sæpe depressa. Pericarpium tenue, carnoso-oleosum. Putamen lignosum. Semen peri- 
arbor parva tortuosa. Rami 
' carpio subconforme. 
Hab. In sylvis ad Rio Uaupès juxta fines Brasiliæ borealis (R. Spruce). 
i 
