1108ACEJE. 423 



exalbuminous embryo. Its radicle is inferior, and its coty- 

 ledons touch, by a flat or more or less sinuous surface ; they 

 are even said to be folded one within the other in Tkelira. Of about 

 two score species now admitted in this genus, this is the only native 

 of the Old World ; the rest are all trees or shrubs from tropical 

 America,' especially common in Brazil and Gruiana, and much rarer 

 in the Antilles ; their leaves are alternate simple and petiolate, with 

 two caducous lateral stipules ; the flowers are in axillary or terminal 

 racemes, either simple or branching, or composed of cymes which 

 are often uniparous above a certain level. These flowers are axillary 

 to bracts, usually covered with hairs, which may be glandular and 

 may also be found even on the edges of the calycine leaves, especially 

 in the Madagascar species. 



Couepia^ may be described as Hirtella in which the androceum 

 consists of at least fifteen stamens and often of more. Sometimes 

 these fertile stamens are all on one side of the flower as in HirteUay 

 and then the narrow ring formed by the union of the bases of the 

 staminal filaments has only a variable number of little teeth or sta- 

 minodes on the other side. Sometimes on the contrary there are a 

 large number of fertile stamens all round the flowers ; they are ar- 

 ranged as in the BosacecB generally, and may be intermixed with more 

 or less elongated sterile filaments. The elongated tubular receptacle 

 with its glandular lining, the perianth, and the gyuseceum are al- 

 together those of Hirtella. The ovary sometimes presents a rudi- 

 mentary false dissepiment between its two collateral ovules.^ The 

 fruit is drupaceous, its mesocarp is of very variable form and 

 thickness.* Couepia consists of two-score species of trees and 

 shrubs from tropical America f the leaves are alternate simple and 

 petiolate,® accompanied by two caducous lateral stipules. The flowers 



1 R. & Pav., Fl., t. 227.— MiQ., Stirp. Surin., ^ Which greatly diminishes the value of Pari- 

 t. 7. — Geiseb., Fl. Brit. W.-Ind., 229. — Cham. nari as a separate genus. 



& ScHiTL., Linnma, ii. 548. — Benth., Rook. * As in Licania and SirteUa. The peri- 



Journ., ii. 216. — Mart. & Zucc, loc. cit., 373. — carp is dry or drupaceous, globular, ovoidal, or 



Seem., Ker., 118. — Hook. F., Mart. Fl. Bras., obovate, or curved and reniform. 



Bosac, 27, t. 9-12.— Walp., Eep., ii. 1 ; v. * Maet. & Zucc, Nov. Gen. et Spec, ii. 80, t. 



646; ^rt»., i. 270j ii. 462. 166; in Flora (1832), Beibl. ii. 90; in Abh. 



2 AUBL., Guian., 519, t. 207. — DC, Prodr., Miincli. Akad., x. 388. — Pcepp. & Exdl., Nov. 

 ii. 526. — Be>'TH., Hook. Journ., u. 212.— B. Gen.et Spec.,\.7o. — Uook.F., 3Iarf. Fl. Bras., 

 H., Gen., 608, n. 9 (part, et excl. syn.). — Ada Rosac., 41, t. 13-16. — Walp., Rep., ii. 6. 



W., Spec, iii. 717. — Dulacia Neck., Flem., n. * There are sometimes two lateral glands at 



1236 ? — Moquilea (part.). Benth., loc cit. (nee the top of the petiole. 



AUBL.). 



