NEW OR LITTLE-KNOWN POLYNESIAN THYMELEiE. 305 
dibuliformi-tubuloso extus glabro, lobis ovato-acuminatis.— Fiji Is- 
lands^ in the mountaias behind Macuata (Mathuata). — Leaves 2 inches 
long. Flowers "white and fragrant," 4-nierous, a little raore than an 
inch long. 
Leucosmia, Benth. Char. Drymispermi, nisi calycis sqnamje faiici 
insertse, lobis alternse. — Flores 5-4-uieri, S-lO-andri, genitalibus more 
quarundam Rnbiacearuni, etc., dimorphis ! 
The anthers do not prove to be versatile, as they were said to be by 
Bentham, nor are they so represented in his plate. The dimorphism, 
moreover, which I detected in these species, shows traces in DrymU 
spermum also, so that instead of placing the two genera nnder distinct 
tribes, modelled after those of Thymelece proper, as done by Meisner, 
it is more likely that Leucosmia should be reduced to a mere section 
of Drymispermum^ distinguished by the scales alone, which are minute 
in two of the species. 
The only species which we have from Tongatabu is Bentham's L. 
Buiiiettiana, which, so far as I know, is always 5-merous and 10- 
androus. But in the Samoan and Fiji Islands an allied species was 
collected, having 4-merous, 8-androus flowers, and truly ovate-lanceolate 
acuminate leaves, such as Forster's character assigns to his Dais di- 
sperma. It seemed likely, therefore, that Forster's species, with '^Jloii- 
bus octandris decandrisqne,^^ was made up of these two; and I still 
Incline to suppose that the character in his ^ Prodromus * had the ovate- 
lanceolate, slender-pointed and thinner-leaved, 8-androus species in 
view. But on the other hand, the fine drawing of Forster's Dais di- 
sperma (t. 136), made on the spot, at Tongatabu (of which, by the 
kindness of Mr. Bennett, the obliging Curator of the botanical col- 
lections at the British Museum, I possess a copy), exactly represents 
Bentham's L. Burnettiana. The only difference is that Bentham's 
plate represents the form with slender filaments, and Forster's that 
with subsessile included anthers. The specimen in G. Forster's her- 
barium, acquired by the British Museum at Lambert's sale, consists, 
as Mr. Bennett informs me, of a single leaf of the same species. This 
leaf, and those of the drawing are by no means "enerviis," so that 
this portion of Forster's phrase remains still unaccountable. [But 
they might be called " enerviis " when the leaves are fresh. — Ed.] 
Under these facts, Forster's Bah disperma must be referred to Ben- 
tham's Leucosmia Blirnetliana (which should have taken the name of 
