NATURAL ORDERS. 1 3;5 



APOCINE^E. There are only six plants In the collec- 

 tion belonging to this order. 



'L'he/ir-s'f of these, together with some other species from 

 Sierra Leone, constitutes an unpublished genus^ the fruit 

 of ^vllich externally resembles that of Ccrhcra, but essen- 

 tially differs from it in its internal structure being polv- 

 spermous. The Cream fruit of Sierra Leone, mentioned 

 by Professor Afzelius,^ probably belongs to this genus, of 

 which an idea may be formed by stating its flower to re- 

 semble that of Vahea, figured, but not described by J\L 

 Lamarck," and its fruit, that of A'oacanga'^ of ]\L du Petit 

 Thouars, from which birdlime is obtained in Madagascai-, 

 or of Urceola^ of Dr. Roxburgh, the genus that i)roduces 

 the caoutchouc of Sumatra. 



The second belongs to a genus discovered in Sierra 

 Leone by Professor Afzelius, who has not yet described it, 

 but has named it Anfliodehia. This genus, however, 

 diff'ers from Potalia of Aublet (the Ni(;andra of Schreber) 

 solely in having a four-celled berry ; that of Potalia l)eing 

 described both by Aublet and Schreber as trilocular, 

 though according to my own observations it is bilocnlar. 

 M. de Jussieu lias appended Potalia to his Gentianea?, 

 partly determined, perhaps, from its being described as 

 herbaceous. The species of Anihodcisia from Congo, 

 however, according to the account given me by Mr. Loek- 

 liart, the gardener of the expedition, is a tree of consider- 

 able size, and its place in the natural method is evidently 

 near Fagrcea. 



Whether these genera should be united with Apocinea? 

 or only placed near them, forming a fifth section of the 

 intermediate tribe already proposed, is somewhat doubtful. 



Li the perfect hermaphrodite flowers of Apocinea?, no 

 exception occurs either to the quinary division of the [450 

 floral envelopes and corresponding number of stamina, or 

 to the bilocular or double ovarium ; and in Asclcjjiade^, 

 which are generally referred by authors to the same ordei*, 

 something like a necessary connection may be perceivctl 



' Sierra Leone Report, 170 i, /;. 17:^, }>■ 47. ^ Illustr. Gen. tub. 1G<). 



^ Nov. Gen. Mudagasc., v. 32. ■* Ax'utt . llesear. 5, ;;. KV.). 



