Mr. J. Miers on the Bignoniacese. 167 



In Amphicoma the capsule appears differently constituted from 

 that of Incarvillea, as before shown ; and in several other respects 

 the genus is at variance with Bignoniacece : it seems more con- 

 formable with Cyrtandracea, as Mr. Brown long ago indicated 

 {loc. sup. cit.) ; in the structure of its flower it quite agrees with 

 that family, especially in its stamens with large appendiculate 

 connective, which in Bignoniacea is not so strongly developed; 

 its fruit is also in perfect accordance with Cyrtandracea, parti- 

 cularly in its long comose seeds, which are pendent (not trans- 

 verse), with a superior (not centrifugal) radicle. The genus, at 

 one time placed in CyrtandracecB by DeCandoUe, was afterwards 

 removed, in great measure on account of its divided leaves ; it 

 must, however, be remembered that it agrees better with the 

 last-mentioned family in its herbaceous habit and general aspect, 

 and that if in Cyrtandracea the leaves are not pinnatisected, they 

 are only one degree removed from this condition in their deeply 

 and unequally serrated margins. 



Before I dismiss this inquiry into the carpological structure 

 of the Bignoniacea, I will mention a novel and interesting form 

 of development which I have noticed in a fruit brought from 

 Jamaica, and now in the Collection of the British Museum, 

 where there are two specimens, collected by different individuals 

 at distant periods, from which we may infer that the plant which 

 produces it is not of rare occurrence in that island. It is to be 

 regretted that these fruits are not accompanied by any dried 

 specimen of the plant from which they were gathered. I have 

 no doubt that it is the fruit of Tanaecium albiflorum, DC. [Tanae- 

 cium Jaroba of Swartz, and the Cucurbitifera fruticosa, Sloane), 

 agreeing in every essential respect with the account given of it 

 by Swartz. The specimen I have seen is 6 inches long (accord- 

 ing to Swartz sometimes a foot in length), 2^ inches in diameter, 

 and nearly circular in its transverse section ; it splits into two 

 valves of a solid ligneous texture, about ^ inch in thickness ; it 

 has a rather thin coriaceous dissepiment, quite smooth on both 

 sides, parallel to and quite free from the valves, and a bipartible 

 compressed replum, which lies between the margins of the valves ; 

 these valves partly split down the middle, as in t?- i c 



Distictis and Dolichandra : the two cells are '^* 



filled with a great many irregularly orbicular 

 and compressed seeds, much resembling those 

 of Adenocalymna, closely packed together and 

 imbricated, apparently without the least trace 

 of intervening pulp (fig. 15) : the outer tunic 

 of each seed is hard and smooth, and is trun- 

 cated on one side by a straight marginal edge, forming an oblong 



