204 THE JOUKNAL OP BOTANY 



ALABASTRA DIVERSA.— Part XXIX.* 



Br Spencer Le M. Moore, B.Sc, F.L.S. 



1. De Phocea Seem, notula emendans. 



In the Journal of Botany, 1870, p. 68, under the name of Phocea 

 Andersonii, Seemann descrihes, as the type of a proposed genus of 

 Cflastracece, a plant in the National Herbarium, collected by W. 

 Anderson in New Caledonia in 1774, which he diagnoses, so far as 

 concerns the flowers, in the following words : — 



" P^oc(9«, gen. nov. Flores polygami (?). CaljTc 5-fidus. Petala 

 . . . . (v. o ?). Stamina .... Discus nuUus. Ovarium sessile, 2-locu- 

 lare, loculis l-ovulatis ; ovula ab axi adscendentia. Stylus brevissimus, 

 stigniatibus 2 elongatis. Drupa sicca, parva, 2-locularis. Semina 

 erecta exarillata, albumine carnosa ; embryone recto." 



The description was published too late for inclusion in the first 

 volume of Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum, and it appears 

 to have remained for a quarter of a century without notice, until 

 Losener dealt with the Celastraceai in vol. iii. 5 of Engler's PJianzen- 

 familien. So many elements of uncertainty attend Seemann's descrip- 

 tion, that Losener was led to doubt whether Phocea is really referable 

 to OelastracecB, and there was the more reason for this seeing that the 

 absence of a disk and the existence of two long stigmas are features 

 calculated to raise grave suspicion. When it is added that inspection 

 of the type specimen yields no evidence of the surmised polygam}^ 

 all the ttcnvers being undoubtedly female, and moreover that the ovule 

 is certainly pendulous from near the top of the cell, the propriety of 

 excluding Phocea from the Gelastraceae can admit of no questioning. 



What, then, is this plant? The given characters would suggest 

 some apetalous genus, and though nothing is said about stipules and 

 since the bilocular ovary excludes it from UrticacecB, Eupliorhiacece 

 would seem to be the Natural Order sought for, the spicate flowers 

 scattered upon a long axis — a character, by the way, Seemann leaves 

 unnoticed — pointing to Macaranga or Mallotus. Accordingly, search 

 was made in Macaranga, and the specimen was found to agree so 

 closely with Vieillard's No. 1160, which is Macaranga coriacea Miill. 

 Arg., as to leave no doubt of the two being conspecific, and thus the 

 puzzle is solved. 



2. Composite (Vernonie^) Africanje novje yel rariores. 



Gutenbergia gracilis Muschler MSS. Planta humilis, sub- 

 spithamea nisi modo semispithamea ; caule erecto superne ramoso 

 uti rami gracillimo paucifolioso subtiliterque pubescente ; foliis 

 oppositis paucis summis vero alternis subsessilibus anguste lineari- 

 oblongis obtuse acutis basi angustatis supra scabriusculis subtus laxe 

 albo-tomentosis ; capitvlis pro rata minimis pedunculis propriis 

 elongatis gracillimis fultis corymbum maxime laxum efiicientibus 

 circa 8-flosculosis ; involucri phyllis 2-serialibus lineari-lanceolatis 

 breviter acuminatis pubescentibus ; flosculis leviter exsertis ; achceniis 

 parvulis clavatis. 



Belgian Congo, Kipanda ; Kassner, 2693. 



* Types of the species here described are in the National Herbarium. 



