GardneriaiKE. N, O. Magnollacese. 



TAB. CCXL CCXII. 



Talauma fragrantissima. 



Foliis lato-ellipticis obtusis, petiolis elongatis marginibus Isevibus 

 facie superior! minute tuberculatis, petalis 9 ( — 10?) 



Hab. Swampy grounds in tbe Organ Mountains, Brazil. 

 Mr Gardner. (2d Coll. n. 305.) 



Having received the fruit of this plant before the flowering 

 specimens arrived, and indeed without being aware that any 

 were to be expected, the two preceding plates were lithographed 

 and printed, when the Herbarium arrived from Brazil, contain- 

 ing the splendid specimen with leaves and blossoms here repre- 

 sented (one of two which were alone gathered in that state), which 

 I am thus tempted to figure also. I was at first disposed to 

 refer this plant to the Talauma ovata, St Hil. Fl. Brazil. Merid.; 

 but besides that the latter is an inhabitant of the western part 

 of the province of Minas Geraes, it differs botanically from the 

 present one in its smaller size, fewer petals, and shorter petiole 

 wrinkled at the margins. It agrees better with the original T! 

 Plumieri of the West Indies ; but without further means than I 

 possess of determining whether it be that or not, I think it safer 

 to consider it distinct. The differences of the three species 

 hitherto described are by no means very important, and it is 

 possible they may all be mere varieties of T. PlumierL I regret 

 that the roughness of the whole upper and plane side of the 

 petiole is omitted in the accompanying plate, and the error was 

 not discovered till it was too late to be corrected. 



Like the Magnolias (from which the Genus scarcely differs 

 but in the union of the carpels into a many-celled dehiscent 

 capsule) all the species are probably fragrant; but the present 

 one has so powerful an odour, that it can be perceived at the 

 distance of more than half a mile. This tree attains a height of 

 40 feet, and the flowers are greenish-yellow. 



Fig. I. represents the united ovaries of T. SeUowiana (from 

 Martius) the better to illustrate the character of the Genus. 



