natural Family of Plants called Compositce. 131 



ovulo ovato pendulo, paulo infra apicem affixo funiculo crassi- 

 usculo ex ipso apice angustato cavitatis ortoj chorda vascu- 

 lari a puncto insertionis ad extremitatem inferiorem ejusdem 

 lateris attingenti. Stylus filiformis glaber, inferne cum basi 

 tubi corolla; connatus. Stigma simplex obtusum hispidulum. 



Flosculi siiperiores nnmevo^'i hermaphrodito-masculi, paulo minores 

 liermapliroditis,calycis laciniis submembranaceis; ovariis (pari- 

 ter connatis) imperfectis, soepius absque ovulo. 



Pericarpia (flosculorum ambitas): Achenia conferruminata, sin- 

 gula coronata calyce aucto 5-spinoso, spinis patulis conico- 

 subulatis e substantia suberosa axi solidiori rigida. 



Semen pendulum, ovatum extremitate superiore acurainato : testa 

 membranacea : OTcwArawa /jro/;rm nucleo adhaerens. Albumen 

 figura seminis, carnosum, copiosum, album. Embryo axilis, 

 subcylindraceus, longitudine fere albuminis, albus, dicotyledo- 

 neus. Cotyledones lineares, obtusae, plano-convexae, vix longitu- 

 dine Radiculce cylindraceae, superae. 



Notwithstanding the great difference between my account of 

 this plant and that given by M. de Jussieu of his Acicarpha tribu- 

 hides, I have very little doubt that they both belong to the same 

 genus ; though from the above description it is evident that Aci- 

 carpha spathulata is not referable to Compositae. To this plant 

 Calycera of Cavanilles, in the seeds of which M. Correa has found 

 albumen, seems to be very nearly related ; and a third genus, 

 probably referable to this group, is Boopis, described by M. de 

 Jussieu in the same Memoir with Acicarpha. The important 

 characters, however, of the pendulous ovulum and inverted em- 

 bryo remain to be ascertained in all these ; and the presence 

 of albumen in Acicarpha tribuloides (in Acicarpha lanata of La- 

 gasca in Pers. Syn. ii. p. 488, if it really belong to this genus), and 



s2 ia 



