ADDENDA. 



Order CXIJIa. MAYACE^. (By N. E. Brown.) 



Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx inferior ; sepals 3, her- 

 baceous, narrowly imbricate in the bud, persistent. Petals 3, hypogy- 

 nous, obovate or suborbicular. Stamens 3, hypogynous, free ; filaments 

 short ; anthers erect, basifixed, subtetragonai, 4 -celled, opening by a 

 terminal pore or by a short apical tube. Ovary superior, 1-celled, with 

 3 parietal placentas ; style filiform, stigma entire ; ovules numerous, 

 orthotropous. Capsule 3-valved ; valves placentiferous down the middle. 

 Seeds numerous, ovoid or globose, with a basal hilum and terminated by 

 a small tubercle, striate, often rugulose or pitted ; albumen farinaceous? ; 

 embryo minute, very shortly and broadly conical or sublenticular, 

 seated at the apex of the albumen. — Small herbs, somewhat moss-like, 

 growing in wet places or in slowly running streams. Stems densely 

 covered with linear .or filiform leaves. Flowers solitary in the axils of 

 the leaves, 1-3 to a branch, or several clustered at the apex of the stem,. 

 on long peduncles. 



A small monotypic order of about 8 species, all natives of America with the 

 exception of the following, which has recently been discovered in Angola. 



1. MAYACA, Aubl. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 843. 



Characters as for the Order. 



1. M, Bauinii, Gurke in Engl. Jahrh. xxxi., Beibl. 69, 1. Stem 

 growing to a length of 20 in. Leaves 6-7 lin. long, J Hn. broad, sessile, 

 linear-subulate, 2-toothed at the apex. Peduncles 2-3, umbellately 

 clustered near the apex of the stem, bent downwards after flowering, 

 J— 1 in. long. Sepals 3-3 J lin. long, lanceolate, obtuse. Petals 4-5 

 lin. long and about as broad, obovate-suborbicular. Stamens 3 ; fila- 

 ments J lin. long ; anthers ^ lin. long, cup-shaped, opening by an apical 

 pore, in the young state covered by a callous dome-shaped operculum. 

 Style simple ; stigma entire, truncate. 



Iiower Guinea. Angola; Benguela; in the River Quiriri, near Sakkemechc, 

 3900 ft., Baum, 811. 



