PLANTS NOV^ THURBERIAN^. 311 



on or underneath the mavgm of the hypogynons, or nearly hypogynous, clypcate and 

 concave disc, apparently deciduous nearly as soon as they expand. Stamens sometimes 

 12 or 13, usually 14 or 16, inserted in the crenatures of the edge of the disc, scarcely 

 longer than the petals : filaments fusiform, very much thickened in the middle, oblique, 

 very villous except at the tapering apex, destitute of any appendage or scale. Anthers 

 linear-oblong, erect, smooth, emarginate at both ends, introrse, early falling away from 

 the less deciduous filaments ; the cells opening longitudinally for their whole length. 

 A minute, 5 - 6-radiate vestige of the abortive gyncccium occupies the concave centre 

 of the disc. Female calyx and probably the corolla as in the male flowers ; but only 

 fertilized flowers occur in the specimens, from which the petals have fallen, if there 

 were any. Stamens apparently 7 or 8, with smaller and slightly thickened filaments, and 

 imperfect anthers. Ovaries commonly 6, verticillate and connivent on a very short and 

 depressed disc or gynophore, semiovate, glabrous, closely sessile, united only at the 

 very base, by means of a short central column : styles arising from the apex of the ova- 

 ries, slightly united at their origin, but immediately distinct and spreading, or radiately 

 divaricate, shorter than the ovaries, deciduous after anthesis, their whole inner or up- 

 per face stigmatic. Ovule solitary, attached by a broad but extremely short funiculus 

 to the ventral suture between the middle and the base of the cell, ascending, ovate-lan- 

 ceolate in form, semianatropous, but the rhaphe very short, the summit tapering into 

 the slender micropylar apex. Fruit of several dry drupes, usually -4 or 5 ripening, 

 stellately spreading, each 3 or 4 lines long, ovoid, slightly compressed laterally, blunt, 

 when they fall separating from as many slender and ligneous divisions of the short cen- 

 tral axis with which the inner angle toward the base was coherent : epicarp thin, at first 

 fleshy : putamen crustaceous, almost bony, indehiscent, smooth and even. Seed filling 

 the cell, ascending, almost erect, a very short rhaphe connecting the hilum with the 

 large and orbicular basal chalaza ; the integument very thin ; the micropyle pointed. 

 Albumen fleshy, in small quantity, inclosing the large embryo, which occupies nearly 

 the whole length and breadth of the seed. Cotyledons straight and flat, thin, between 

 foliaceous and fleshy. Eadicle superior, not retracted, about one fourth the length of 

 the cotyledons. 



This curious shrub, or small tree, was first noticed by Colonel Emory, w4io, however, 

 obtained only naked branches, one of which is figured (Fig. 14) on one of the plates of 

 Cactece, Sec, appended to his Report. In the notes Dr. Engelmann suggested that it 

 might prove to be another species of Koeherlinia, which, indeed, it resembles in its 

 whole habit. The flowers and fruit, now made known by Mr. Thurber, are very dif- 

 ferent from those of Koeherlinia ; but yet not essentially unlike those of the order 



