HUMIRIACEJE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 104. 



HUMIRIUM. 



Calyx 5-cleft. Petals 5. Fertile stamens 20 ; filaments mona- 

 delphous at the base ; anthers with an appendage at the apex, 

 and distant cells. Sterile stamens about half the number, sur- 

 rounding the base of the ovary in the form of hypogynous scales. 

 Stigma with 5 rays. Drupe with an 8-celled stone ; of which 

 the cells are 1 -seeded, 4 cells being placed over the other 4. 



311. H. floribundum Mart. gen. and sp. pi. ii. 145. t. 199. 

 Various parts of Brazil. 



A tree 20 30 feet high. Branches slightly winged, purplish brown. 

 Leaves alternate, obovate or oblong, obtuse, obscurely emarginated, 

 narrowing into a very short petiole. Cymes axillary, on long stalks 

 little shorter than the leaves. Flowers small. Calyx with rounded 

 lobes. Petals white, erect, lanceolate, obtuse. Anthers fringed, with 

 a tongue- shaped appendage much longer than the lobes. Hypogynous 

 scales bifid, adhering into a toothed cup. Drupe 4-5 lines long, 

 purple, with a soft sweet eatable flesh. This plant, the Umiri of the 

 people of Para, yields from its trunk when wounded a valuable, fragrant, 

 limpid, pale yellow balsam called Balsam of Umiri, possessing the same 

 medicinal qualities as Balsam of Copaiva, "immo nobiliorem et balsamo 

 peruviano oemulum." Martins. 



312. H. balsamiferum Aubl. 565. t. 225. Myrodendron am- 

 plexicaule Schreb. gen. No. 901. A Guiana plant, with ovate 

 or ovate-oblong acute sessile half-amplexicaul leaves, yields a 

 similar balsam, which Aublet compares to that of Peru ; it is the 

 Houmiri or Touri of the Caribs. 



15'9 



