Mr. J. Miers on the Meuispermacese. 487 



1. Chasmanthera dependens, Hochst, ; — Abyssinia (Schimper) ; 

 River Quorra (Baxter). 



2. Chasmanthera nervosa, nob.; — Africa Occident.; Bagroo 

 River (Mann, 888). 



The details of these species are given in the third vol. of the 

 ' Contributions to Botany.' 



6. FlBRAUREA. 



This genus, proposed by Loureiro in 1793, was not acknow- 

 ledged by botanists till I pointed out its validity in 1851 : the 

 authors of the ' Flora Indica ' have recognized the justice of this 

 claim, but they have not fully comprehended its true nature. I 

 had rightly arranged the genus in the Heterocliniece, but Drs. 

 Hooker and Thomson placed it in the Packygoneee, under the 

 conviction that a plant collected by them in the Khasya hills, 

 which they named Fibraurea hcematocarpa, belonged to the 

 genus ; in this conclusion they were undoubtedly mistaken, as 

 their plant forms the type of a new genus {Hamato carpus) , near 

 Pachrjgone. There can be no mistake in regard to Loureiro's 

 typical plant, for that exists in the British Museum, but unfor- 

 tunately it has neither flower nor fruit ; these desiderata, how- 

 ever, are found in other plants from Penang, Malacca, and 

 Borneo. Although the fruit in one of these specimens is not 

 quite matured, there is sufficient evidence to show that the 

 genus is near Tinomiscium : it has an oblong drupe, with the 

 style on its apex ; its putamen is quite thin and smooth, flat on 

 the ventral face, where the condylar process is an internal narrow 

 longitudinal carinal projection, running from the base to the apex, 

 to which the seed is attached near its summit. In its imperfect 

 state, the enclosed seed is oval, nearly flat (by compression in 

 drying), the albumen is not fully grown, but the incomplete 

 embryo, with divaricated cotyledons, is sufficiently perceptible 

 to show the nature of the structure. The above-mentioned 

 authors repudiate the notion that the petals are agglutinated to 

 the stamens, and say they have searched in vain for a confirma- 

 tion of the fact ; but how can we otherwise explain the nature of 

 the projecting frill-like appendage, apparently part of a mem- 

 brane that surrounds and seems to embrace the filaments; it 

 is easy to insinuate a point some way down between that ap- 

 pendage and the anther-cells which it partly conceals. In 

 Anomospermum each filament is enclosed within a free fleshy 

 petal that entirely embraces it, leaving only the anther visible ; 

 and if we conceive these to be agglutinated together, we shall 

 have precisely such a stamen as we find in Fibraurea : it cer- 

 tainly is not an established fact, although it is a fair inference, 

 and we may expert to meet with the proof at some future time. 



