232 ■ FLORA OF JAMAICA ThryalKa 



Leaves narrowly elliptical, glabrous, 2-5 cm. 1. Panicles many- 

 flowered ; rhachis pubescent with dark-red hairs or glabrescent. Sepals 

 oblong, 3*5-4 mm. 1. 'J Petals about 1 cm. 1.; blade more or less ovate. 

 Filaments pinkish below, unequal, slightly united at base, 3-5 mm. 1. ; 

 anthers 3 mm. 1. Cocci 3*5 mm. L, dark green. Seeds dark brown, 

 3 mm. 1., radicle prominent.] 



4. HETEROPTERIS* H. B. & K. 



Shrubs, trailing and twining, climbing over trees (in ,West 

 Indian species). Leaves, with or without glands on the petiole ; 

 stipules inconspicuous. Flowers small, generally in panicles. 

 Calyx usually 8-glandular. Petals yellow, 3-5 mm. in diam. 

 Stamens unequal, all perfect ; filaments united at the base. 

 Apex of styles somewhat compressed and dilated, with a sharp 

 point at the back. SamarsB 1-3 ; the wing dorsal, thickened on 

 the lower margin. 



Species about 80, natives of tropical America (including 

 the West Indies), rarely extending beyond the tropics in 

 S. America, also a few in western tropical Africa. 



Leaves leathery, 6-20 cm. 1., without glands. 



Panicles pyramidal. Fruit, wing elliptical 1. H. laiiri folia. 



Panicles : branches few, patent. Fruit sub-semi- 

 circular 2. H. reticulata. 



Leaves membranous, less than 6 cm. 1., petiole 2-glan- 



dular about the. middle 3. H. purpurea. 



1. H. laurifolia A. Juss. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2, xiii. 276 (1840) 

 & Arch. Mu8. Par. Hi. 458 ; leaves leathery, glabrous, without 

 glands, 6-17 cm. 1. ; panicles terminal, pyramidal, branches 

 racemose ; wing of fruit elliptical, narrowed near the base, with 

 a triangular projection near the base on the upper margin. — 



* Linnaeus (Sp. PI. ed. 2, 611) includes seven species in his genus 

 Banisteria. Omitting the East Indian species, of the remaining six 

 three have the lower margin of the samara-wing thickened, and three 

 the upper. 



In 1822 Kunth (H. B. & K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. v. 158, 163) applied the 

 name Banisteria to species with the upper margin of the wing thickened, 

 and founded a new genus Heteropteris for those with the lower margin 

 thickened. 



In 1832 Jussieu founded a new genus Stigmaphyllon for species of 

 Banisteria, as defined by Kunth, which have only six perfect stamens 

 instead of ten, thus leaving no species in Linnseus's original enumeration 

 of Sp. PL ed. 1 & 2. Strictly speaking Jussieu should have used the name 

 Banisteria for the species which he included under his new genus 

 Stigmaphyllon, i.e., for the portion of Linnseus's original Banisteria left 

 by Kunth, when separating Heteropteris. 



Grisebach, Bentham & Hooker, and Niedenzu follow Kunth and Jussieu. 

 Small (N. Amer. Fl.) keeps Banisteria for two Linuean species and others 

 with the lower margin thickened (giving up Heteropteris), and Stigmaphyllon 

 for those with the iipper margin thickened and six perfect stamens. 



