188 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Cytinus Americanus (R. Br.) : dioica ; fioribus arete sessilibus ebrac- 

 teolatis, masculis e bractea paullo remotis ; perianlhio profunde 8 - 

 9-fido patentissimo, aestivatione contorto-imbricata ; columna et stylo 

 modice elongatis ; cuspide connectivi antheris ajquilouga ; placentis 

 14-16 integris ? (101). Tbese specimens are very interesting, both 

 as furnishing the female flowers and the habitat of this plant, both be- 

 fore unknown. They were collected by Mr. Ervendberg at Warten- 

 berg, in wet places in the woods. The male plant from Mr. Barclay, 

 which Mr. Brown examined, was in all probability also Mexican. As 

 to the male flowers, the only thing of any importance to add to Mr. 

 Brown's brief account is, that they are supra-axillary, being at a small 

 distance above their subtending bracts. These bracts appear to be 

 much more thick and coriaceous (as also is the perianth) than in G. 

 Hypocystis. The flowers also are larger, and the perianth more deeply 

 cleft. The latter when fully developed is half in inch long, and rotately 

 campanulate ; in jestivation only one lobe is exterior and one interior, 

 the others overlapping one another in the convolute manner. The 

 stamineal column becomes a line and half long, rather longer than the 

 anthers. These are from 8 to 10 in number; their fleshy connective 

 in some blossoms appear to be as much combined as in C Hypocystis, 

 while in others, probably older ones, they are less combined above, as 

 Brown describes them, and radiate-spreading. The cusp terminating 

 the connective is fleshy, and of the same nature as that of the other spe- 

 cies, but is prolonged and subulate, usually as long as the anther itself. 

 The female flowers collected are in an advanced state. The globose 

 and very closely sessile gravid ovary is close to the subtending bract ; 

 the style between IJ- and 2 lines in length; the stigma radiate, but ob- 

 scurely lobed. A cross-section of the gravid and enlarged ovary shows 

 from 10 to 14 thin lamellar placentae projecting far into the cell, and 

 three to five smaller ones, only slightly projecting, all apparently simple 

 (not lobed), and not approximate in pairs, covered with linear-oblong 

 ovules ; and moreover the parieties between the placenta3 are ovulife- 

 rous as (apparently) Hooker figures them in C. dioicus. No one can 

 examine the flowers without being struck (as were Linnajus, Jussieu, 

 and Brown) with their affinity to Aristolochiacefe. 



The common Boerhaavia erecta, L. (156), and Pisonia aculeata, L. ? 

 the species uncertain for want of fruit (331), represent the Nyctagi- 

 ne£e ; and Coccoloba Humboldtii, Meisn. (364) the Polygonaceoe. 



The Phytolaccaceae are Rivina Icevis, var. pubescens, Griseb., the R. 



