98 ON SPENCERIA, A NEW GENUS OF ROSACEA. 



involucro vel liypocalyci ex duo bracteis 5-fidis arete con- 



natis formato iufundibuliformi sufiultis. 



Hab. In monte dicto Ra-Ma-La, CliinEe occidentalis, altit. 



circa 14,300 ped. legit Gul. GiU. [Tab. 201.] 

 The material at my disposal is unfortunately insufficient to 

 determine completely the habit of the j^lant. The specimen 

 figured is the best of three, aU very similar, and each with two 

 simi)le leaves irregularly cut, sessile and apparently without 

 stipules ; probably the plant possesses basal leaves of a higher 

 degree of development which were not collected. Hairs soft, white, 

 spreading, except on the pedicels where they are subadpressed. 

 Flowers about 12 in a rather dense erect raceme, rather large, 

 about I inch wide. Sepals lanceolate, acute, with long silvery 

 hairs externally. Petals not emarginate, very finely veined, yellow. 

 Stamens about half as long as the petals, filaments flat. Hairs 

 from the top of the carpels very long, projecting for some distance 

 out of the mouth of the disk-tube as a shining snow-white pencil 

 or tuft. None of the flowers are withered, but in the oldest ones 

 there is an evident commencement of hardening in the calyx-tube, 

 which probably increases in size and durability, and incloses one 

 or two achenes. 



The large flowers of this plant at first sight suggested Potentilla 

 or Geum as a near ally, but from the above description it will be 

 seen that the affinity of Spenceria is wdth the Poteriem [AgrimoniecB). 

 Of the genera included in this tribe it comes nearest to Aremonia, — 

 a monotypic Mediterranean and Eastern genus placed under Agri- 

 monia both by Baillon* and Hooker, + but retained by Nyman,^ — 

 distinguished by the want of spines on the outside of the calyx- 

 tube, fewer stamens (5 instead of 15), and the possession of a 

 funnel-shaped involucre or hypocalyx§ of two connate bracts just 

 below the flower, as in Spenceria. The new genus differs from 

 Aremonia in the remarkable development of the disk, which is 

 earned out into a long tube round the stjdes, in the more numerous 

 (30) stamens, in the simple not capitate stigmas, and in the pos- 

 session of stipular bractlets between the calyx- segments ; as well 

 as by the large flowers, and probably quite different habit and 

 foliage. The tubular persistent disk is a remarkable development 

 of a structure of special interest in this Order, in no other genus 

 of which is it so produced beyond the flower. The nearest api^roach 

 to such a development appears to be in the remarkable Japanese 

 genus Rhodotyjjos, \\ but even there it is not prolonged into a tube. 



Dkscription of Tab. 201. — Spenceria ramalana, Trimen. Drawn from one 

 of Capt. Gill's specimens. — 1. A specimen with raceme of flowers. 2. The 

 involucre or hypocalyx. 3. The same, seen from beneath. 4. The calyx. 

 5. A petal. 6, 7. Anthers. 8. Section of the calyx-tube and disk, showing the 

 carpels in situ. 9. Vertical section of ovary. (AU the figures but 1 enlarged.) 



* ' Hist, des Plantes,' i., p. 352. 



+ * Gen. Plant.,' i., p. 6^3. 



J ' Conspt-'ct. Flor. Europ.', p. 238. 



§ Mr. S. Moore has suggested to me the use of this convenient ttrui. 



11 Sieb. & Yucc, 'Fl. Japon.', t. 2!i. 



