502 SAFFORD: SO-CALLED UNONAS OF THE OLD WORLD 
cated, though they are described as stipitate and aromatic and 
borne in umbellike clusters on the receptacle (intra corollam). 
The name Unona was taken up by Vahl,* who imagined that a 
certain East Indian plant was congeneric with Linnaeus’s type. 
He redescribes Unona discreta without mentioning its type locality, 
but in his description he deviates somewhat from the original in 
characterizing the leaves as sericeous beneath, 11% inches long, 
much attenuated, narrow, willowlike (salicina), and scarcely 
petioled. He does not describe the fruit nor indicate the number 
of seeds. He does, however, describe a second species, and he 
figures its fruit, which is elongate and moniliform or constricted 
between the seeds. The figure of the fruit of this species, Unona 
discolor Vahl, led to Dunal’s subsequent error of describing the 
carpels of U. discreta Linn. f. as moniliform, for which he had no 
warrant. Dunal (Monographie de la famille des Anonacées I10. 
1817) cites first Vahl and then Linnaeus f. He follows Vahl in 
describing the leaves of U. discreta as sericeous beneath; and for 
his description of the fruit he refers to Gaertner’s figure of an 
Asiatic plant, Uvaria monilifera, which was considered as a possible 
synonym of the Surinam Unona discreta, but which in all prob- 
ability is to be referred to Unona discolor Vahl. The latter plant, 
as we shall see, is regarded as a synonym of Desmos chinensts 
Loureiro (1790). 
The limits of the genus Unona as treated by Dunal are very 
ill-defined. This was inevitable in many instances on account of 
the scant material at his disposal, in which fruits were ie 
lacking. In the genus Unona he included plants of several distinct 
genera. His Unona uncinata is the fragrant Artabotrys odoratts- 
sima of India and Ceylon, the ripe carpels of which are not at al 
moniliform; his Unona nitidissima is an Australian plant belonging 
to the genus Polyalthia; his Unona crassipetala, a Guiana plant a 
which he did not see the fruit, is undoubtedly a species of Guatteria, 
his Unona violacea is a species of Sapranthus closely allied sd S. 
nicaraguensis Seem.; his Unona penduliflora is the spicy ens" 
caztli of the Mexicans (Cymbopetalum penduliflorum Baill.) ; “38 
his Unona acutiflora and U. xylopioides, from South Americ 
are both synonyms of St. Hilaire’s X- ylopig rons 
* Symb. Bot. 2: 63. 1791. 
