162 



MILIUS A AND SACCOPETALUM. 



(Family Anonace.^e) 



By 



J. E. Drummond, F.L.S. 



The genus Miliusa was founded by Alphonse De Candolle (in 

 Mem. de la Soc. de Phys. et d'Hist. nat. de Geneve vol. V., 1832) on 

 a plant collected by Leschenault de la Tour " in niontibus Cotta-lam 

 dictis acl peninsulse indicse meridiem ". Cotta-lam has been identi- 

 fied with Courtallam in the Tinnevelly District of the Madras 

 Presidency (S. India). 



The generic character, rendered into English, is as follows : — 



Corolla gamopetalous, campanulate, three-lobed. Stamens 12 ? 

 with slender elongate filaments, and very small anthers. Eeceptacle 

 ovoid. Ovaries indefinite, 2-ovuled, the ovules superposed. Carpels 

 free. 



From the detailed description we gather further that the Miliusa 

 was a low shrub with bifarious elliptic leaves, and solitary axillary 

 flowers, consisting of a triad gamopetalous corolla (or three petals, 

 about nine lines long, connate for half their length) concave or 

 hooded at the base concealing the pedicel and the small calyx of 

 three sepals, the petals folded internally so as to form three hairy 

 fimbriate appendages, one opposite each of the main lobes of the 

 corolla. The anthers, scarcely 1/20 line long, are inserted on the 

 receptacle, supported by slender glabrous filaments, and rounded. 

 The receptacle is very hairy. De Candolle observes " Genus ex 

 habitu, corolla gamopetala, basi concava, et interne reduplicata, 

 distinctissimum." 



Plate No. iii accompanying the Memoir represents "Miliusa 

 Lcsche?iauUii, Alph. DC." which is manifestly the Miliusa indica of 

 the text, although at the right hand upper corner a portion of a leaf 

 (figure 8) is included which is not accounted for in the letter press, 

 and may belong to some other plant. 



From this illustration it appears that the torus in Miliusa indica 

 consists of two portions, of which the lower, constituting about one- 

 fifth of the whole, is glabrous, the remaining four-fifths being 

 pilose ; the stamens are inserted at the division between these two 

 portions and the corolla, at the base of the lower (glabrous) fifth > 

 one corolline whorl is visible, the lobes of which are connate for 

 about two-thirds of their length, and prolonged, " hooded " — or 

 rather saccate — , at their bases, completely hiding the small sharply 

 refracted "calyx", of which the segments are rather strongly ciliato ; 



