FOUK NEW GENERA OF AROIDE^.. 195 



parietal placenta. Stigma discoid, subsessile. Male flowers 3-5- 

 androus; anthers sessile, obpyramidate prismatic, truncate ; anther- 

 cells linear, as long as the thick connective, dehiscing by pores at 

 their vertex. A stout subepiphytical climber. Leaves long 

 petioled, cordate-oblong in outline, perforate and subpinnatipartite, 

 or pinnatipartite ; primary lateral veins stout, distant, the three 

 or four basal ones united and denuded at the sinus, more or less 

 horizontal or retrorse, the rest spreading or ascending, all nearly 

 straight for three-quarters of their length, then more or less 

 abruptly curved up and excurrent in a very slender intramarginal 

 vein just within the margin ; secondary veins distant, ascending, 

 slightly and gradually curved. Inflorescence terminal. 



Species one, native of West Tropical Africa. 



This genus is allied to P kilo d end run, but is well distinguished 

 from that and all other genera of the group to which it belongs, 

 by the structure of the ovary and the form of the leaf. 



R. MiRABiLE, n. sp. [Tab- 230.] — Stem an inch thick, 

 clinabing to a height of 80 feet. Petioles two feet or more long, 

 stout, sulcate-grooved at their base. Lamina 18 inches long, 12- 

 18 inches broad, subcoriaceous, cordate-oblong, somewhat abruptly 

 subacute, divided nearly or quite to the midrib on each side in 

 one or two places, so that the leaf becomes subpinnatipartite, and 

 having one or two large slit -like perforations on each side ; 

 primary lateral veins 3 or 4 on each side of the midrib, besides 

 the basal ones. Peduncles about two together, 1|~2 inches long, 

 stout. Spathe 4 inches long, fleshy, green, fruit-red. 



Fernando Po, G. Mann, No. 101, December, 1859 ! Barter ! 



The Kew Herbarium also contains a leaf collected by Mr. 

 Monteiro, in Old Calabar, which diflers slightly in the cutting and 

 venation of the leaf from the Fernando Po specimens, and when 

 the inflorescence is known may prove to be a distinct species. 



Gamogyne, n. g. 

 Spathe ellipsoid acute, closely convolute except a small opening 

 a little below the apex, the upper portion deciduous after fertili- 

 sation in the form of a calyptra. Spadix monoecious, free, sessile, 

 exapppendiculate, male and female portions closely contiguous with 

 an intermediate staminodiferous portion, flowers without a perianth, 

 densely crowded. Ovaries entirely connate, one-celled, ovules 

 numerous, suborthotropous, on long funicles, ascending, biseriate 

 on parietal placentas. Stigma sessile, discoid. Staminodia free, 

 angular by mutual compression, truncate. Male flowers 2-androus ? 

 anthers subsessile, free, oblong, compressed, truncate, the cells 

 linear-oblong, opposite or sub-opposite, reaching nearly to the base 

 of the connective dehiscing by pores at their vertex ; a few at the 

 apex of the spadix abortive. Perennial tufted herbs, with petiolate 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate leaves, the petiole very shortly 

 sheathing at the base ; primary lateral veins ascending, excurrent 

 in an intramarginal vein, secondary veins numerous, arising from 

 the midrib and parallel with the primary ones. Peduncle solitary, 

 elongate ; spathe nodding or obliquely ascending. 



