MR. BENTHAM ON TWO NEW GENERA OF BRAZILIAN PLANTS. 127 



first examined, but five, although very unequal in size. There are really five stamens, of 

 which tlu'ee are reduced to mere barren scales ; all are opposite to the petals and inserted 

 with them under a small five-lobed disk, and our plant must be sought for among the 

 disk- bearing polypetalous families with compound leaves. The form and structure of 

 the ovary remind at once of some Slmarubaceo, and if that family be extended as pro- 

 posed by Planchon, it may well include Fhoxanthus also. The stamens opposite the 

 linear petals occur in Ficrmnnia (whose place among Si/marubacece is however doubted 

 by Tulasne), and in the still more anomalous Alvaradoa; the contortupUcate cotyledons, 

 so remarkable in Fhoxanthus, are also described in Fierodendron. The stamens, however, 

 are very different in form from those which prevail in Simarubacece, and I have been 

 unable to detect in our plant any of the bitter principle so universal in that family. The 

 absence however cannot be absolutely ascertained from a dried specimen. The succulent 

 pericarp is evidently very oUy. 



Mr. Spruce describes Fhoxanthus as a slender woody plant with a stem as thick as the 

 arm, threading among trees to a great height, or, when standing alone, forming a small 

 tortuous tree. The branches are distant, nearly simple, the lower ones near the ground 

 alone flowering, and these have mostly simple leaves, whilst the upper barren branches 

 have large pinnate leaves with three to nine leaflets often near a foot long. The floM ers 

 are small and nmnerous in large red panicles, the petals themselves being of a pale flesh 

 colour. He gathered it in October 1852, in the forests of the Rio Uaupfes, especially 

 near the Falls of Panuri?. 



PflOXANTHTTS. 



Cbar. Gen. — Calyx brevis 5-fidus ; laciniis ovatis aestivatione irabricatls, 2 exterioribus vulgo minoribus, 

 una interdum deficiente. Petala linearia, acutissima, basi dilatata, hypogyna. Stamina petalis 

 opposita et cum iis sub disco hypogyno 5-lobo inserta ; 2 fertilia fiiamento brevissimo crasso, anthera 

 biloculari, loculis connectivo crasso disjunctis ritna transversali dehiscentibus ; 3 sterilia squamffiformia. 

 Ovarium subsessile, apice brevissime bilobum, lobis vertice stigmatosis, intus biloculare. Ovula in 

 loculis gemina, versus apicem anguli interioris superposita pendula. Fmcttis drupaceus, abortu 

 unilocularis, monospermus. Semen unicum, hilo lato juxta basin fructus affixum ; testa membranacea. 

 Embryo exalbuminosus ; radicula crasso-carnosa incurva ad hilum spectaus ; cotyledoues insigniter 

 contortuplicatae. 



Species unica Phoxanthus hetebophyllus. Frutex alte scandens vel arbor parva tortuosa. Rami 

 subsimplices ; inferiores floriferi juxta terrain breves foliis plerisque simplicibus (unifoliolatis petiolo 

 brevissimo) ; superiores steriles foliis imparipinnatis 3-9-foliolatis, petiolo 1-2-pedali. Stipulas non 

 vidi. Foliola elliptico-oblonga, abrupte et anguste acuminata, basi rotundata v. acutiuscula, 6-12 

 poll, longa, 3-4 poll, lata, coriacea, glabra, penninervia, impunctata. Paniculae axillares, ampke, 

 laxae, ramis divaricatis in vivo rubris, in sicco pube minuta rufescentibus. Flores parvi in ramulos 

 ultimos thyrsoidei. Pedicelli vix semilineam longi, bractea minima sufiFuIti. Calyx pedicello brevior, 

 campanulatus, laciniis membranaceis margine denticulatis. Petala valde inaequalia, majora lj-2 lin. 

 longa. ^stivatio subvalvata videtur. Stamina fertilia petalis minoribus, sterilia majoribus opposita ; 

 filamenta fertilium obovoidea ; anthera biglobosa, per anthesin introrsum incumbens, post poIUnem 

 ejectum ascendenti-erecta. Drupa 9-12 lin. diametro corapressa subglobosa v. leviter incurva, ad 

 insertionem saepe depressa. Pericarpium tenue, camoso-oleosum. Putamen lignosum. Semen peri- 

 carpio subconforme. 



Hab. In sylvis ad Rio Uaup^ juxta fines Brasiliae borealis {R, Spruce). 



