iS SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 98 



at one side. Anthers introrse, oblong, slightly tapering, 2-2.5 mrn - 

 long, the narrow subversatile attachment a little above the middle, the 

 dark connective exposed at the back, nearly as long as the pale closely 

 contiguous anther-cells. Pistillodes nearly 3 mm. long, conic-cylindric, 

 assimilated to the filaments in form, texture, and color, thickened and 

 somewhat united at the base, not flattened or much united as in Catis 

 or Acrista. 



Female flowers with sepals and petals of the same texture and 

 form, broadly obovate-triangular, the distal margin often transverse 

 or refuse, but distinctly mucronate in the middle, the mucro thickened 

 and the median area prominent, with numerous parallel longitudinal 

 fibers, the marginal band very thin and transparent, often lacerate- 

 fimbriate. Petals in the bud enclosed by the sepals, but strongly ac- 

 crescent, at maturity about one-third longer than the sepals, covering 

 the lower third of the fruit, the mature perianth brownish, tinged with 

 dull crimson-purple along the margins. Staminodes obsolete, lacking 

 even the thin rudiments sometimes found in Plectis. 



Fruits somewhat larger than in Plectis, subglobose, nearly 1 cm. 

 in diameter ; style and stigma subapical, persistent, borne on a promi- 

 nent indurated frustum, surface more coarsely granular than in 

 Plectis; the outer crust thicker and harder, formed of large accretions 

 of stone-cells ; mesocarp fibers few, though stronger and more irregu- 

 lar than in Plectis. Not only the style and stigma are thicker and more 

 persistent than in Plectis but the supporting frustum is more promi- 

 nent and much more indurated, the difference in texture being indi- 

 cated by a dull yellowish color, instead of purplish like the surface 

 elsewhere. The frustum in Plectis is somewhat less prominent, and 

 only the rim is indurated and of a lighter, yellowish color, along the 

 upper margin ; also the induration is less in Plectis and the disk nearly 

 flat, the style not being thickened, and the base relatively narrow and 

 abrupt. 



SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



Seeds globose-reniform, with uniform endosperm, basal embryo 

 and subapical hilum, the upper surface somewhat flattened, a broad 

 shallow groove between the hilum and the embryo ; the upper margin 

 of the groove around the hilum somewhat prominent or inflated, more 

 than in Plectis, also the groove broader and more sloping on the sides, 

 the raphe or downward extension of the hilum much narrower than 

 the groove, with distinct margins tapering gradually to a point about 

 halfway to the embryo ; the groove mostly occupied by a strand of 

 parallel fine fibers, radially diverging under the embryo ; the outer 



