Mr. J. Miers on the genus Cathedra. 457 



cence of a Heisteria. My specimens bear ovaries in different 

 states of development after the fall of the corolla. They are 

 fleshy and pulvinate, 1 -celled inside, Muth one ovule pendulous 

 from a lateral placenta. The calyx is persistent, very small, and 

 bluntly 6-lobed, or rather with three emarginate lobes ; between 

 the calyx and ovary are three cup-shaped truncated disks one 

 within the other. The outer one, considerably larger than the 

 calyx, appears to increase gradually as the ovary swells ; within 

 it, the second disk, larger than the first, grows more rapidly ; 

 close around the ovary the third or innermost disk is quite short 

 and concealed within the second, and does not increase at all. 

 The ovary is very obtuse and crowned with the remains of a fili- 

 foi*m style, from the base of which may be traced six diverging 

 lines.'' I have examined a specimen of this plant in Sir Wm. 

 Hooker's herbarium, and can confirm the accuracy of Mr. Ben- 

 tham's observations, but with this difference, that the ovary is 

 probably still more advanced, being of an oval form, and it is 

 partly surrounded by four very distinct cup-shaped disks, that is 

 to say, one more than was observed in Mr. Bentham's specimen. 

 I will annex a drawing and section of the ovary and concentric 

 disks thus observed, to the plate which I intend offering of the 

 analysis of Cathedra rubricaulis, and will give below a specific 

 character of Gardner's plant. The smaller and innermost cup 

 around the base of the ovary is evidently the same disk that sup- 

 ports the petals and stamens in my plant : this in the other spe- 

 cies is inclosed in, and concealed by the second cup, which is 

 double its length, and half the length of the ovary thus far 

 grown, and is no doubt the true calyx ; the other two outer cups, 

 as well as the calyx, are each supported by a short stipes, and 

 are successively smaller, the outermost being extremely short 

 and irregular on the margin. I can only account for the exist- 

 ence of these two outer cups, by supposing them to be merely 

 external involucrating cupuliform bracts, now made manifest by 

 the lengthening of the pedicel, and that have become enlarged in 

 the same manner as the calyx, and which have formed part of 

 the oi'iginal gemma, out of which the clustered fascicle of almost 

 sessile flowers springs ; for in my flowering specimens, although 

 these bracts are very short and almost obsolete, they are yet 

 distinctly cupuliform. I have formed the generic name from 

 KadeSpa, sella, on account of the petals and stamens being sup- 

 ported on the margin of an elevated cupuliform disk. 



Cathedra (gen. nov.). — Calyx cupuliformis, carnosus, margine 

 membranaceo-ciliatus, obsolete 6-dentatus, liber, persistens. 

 Petala 6, oblonga, acuta, intus ad apicem subtrigona, carnosa, 

 et glandulis brevibus sub-piliformibus creben-imis tecta, ad 



