266 Mr. J. Miers on the Bignoniacese. 



entire length and extend half-way towards the centre. In these 

 fissures, at intervals of every 4 or 5 inches apart, are seen the 

 sprouts branching from the centre, out of which the decussating 

 opposite leaves have originated ; and it is to be remarked that 

 these leaf-sprouts are always found in the four alternate grooves 

 which correspond with the secondary set of medullary rays above 

 mentioned. Each of these axillary sprouts is formed of a con- 

 geries of four sets of concentric plates united together in one 

 common bundle — a structure probably connected with the deve- 

 lopment of conjugate leaves. The wood is extremely light and 

 porous, and I believe it to be the stem of Bignonia Rego, Veil., 

 the Arrabidea Rego, DC. (misspelt Sego in the 'Prodromus') *. 

 I have not seen any specimen of this plant, and have some doubt 

 whether it be a true species of Arrabidea ; at all events, it must 

 not be taken as the type of the genus, though placed first on its 

 list in the ' Prodromus ' by DeCandolle, who appears to have 

 known it only from Velloz's drawing. 



In the 'Prodromus' of DeCandolle too much importance has 

 been assigned to the form of the calyx as a generic feature of 

 distinction : on the one hand, this distinction has been little 

 attended to in the selection of the species under the different 

 genera, as in Cuspidaria, Arrabidea, Tahebuia, &c. ; while, on the 

 other hand, many species, generically distinct, are brought to- 

 gether in one group, as in Spathodea, Tabebuia, &c. It will be 

 seen, in the descriptions I here propose to give of sundry Big- 

 noniaceous plants, that in the same genus the size, shape, mar- 

 ginal dentations or fissures of the calyx vary to a considerable 

 extent, and that the great peculiarity of form, which was thought 

 to characterize only the genus Spathodea, exists also in the 

 genera Macfadyena, Mansoa, Dolichandra, Tabebuia, and some 

 others. The same may be said of Cuspidaria, where but few of 

 the species enumerated by DeCandolle possess the long cuspi- 

 date teeth that suggested this generic name, while similar long 

 setaceous teeth are found in Mansoa, Tynanthus, and several 

 other genera. I have placed the Bignonia glutinosa, DC, and 

 other kindred species, in the genus Dolichandra, notwithstanding 

 that its calyx (as also its corolla) becomes nearly as much en- 

 larged and coloured as in CaUichlamys ; but this feature is only 

 due to the extreme increment of those parts, which may be traced 

 in all its various gradations. 



* This error has originated in copying the name from the lithographed 

 plate of the ' Flora Fluminensis,' executed in Paris, in which work nume- 

 rous similar misnomers occur. Had DeCandolle referred to the text of 

 that work, he would have discovered the mistake, and have called the 

 plant Arrabidea Kego : the latter is a Portuguese word signifying a rent or 

 iissure, in allusion to the fissures I have described, and which are represented 

 in the plate referred to, vol. vi. tab. 39. 



