CQNNARACE&. 7 



within whose coats is found a fleshy albumen, at whose apex is a 

 pretty long embryo, with its radicle superior. Sometimes the seed 

 has no aril; sometimes on the contrary this organ is represented by 

 a sort of fleshy frill near the hilum, with its superior edge irregu- 

 larly divided. 1 Cnestis consists of bushy shrubs, often sarmentos 

 with alternate, imparipirmate, exstipulate leaves; the flowers are 

 in racemes, simple or composed of cymes, axillary or terminal, or 

 more rarely grouped in numbers on peculiar short woody branch 

 About a dozen species are known, natives of tropical Asia 2 and 

 Africa, 3 the Indian Archipelago, the Mascarene Islands, and Mada- 

 gascar and the neighbouring islands. 4 



Cnestidium" is a New World type, closely analogous to Cnestis. 

 The perianth and androceum are nearly the same, but the valvate 

 calyx has sometimes only three or four sepals instead of five. 6 The 

 petals are longer than the sepals, tapering at the base and imbri- 

 cated in the bud. There are ten stamens, of which the five oppositi- 

 petalous are the smaller ; they all cohere at the base into a very 

 short ring, above which the slender filaments become free and taper 

 towards the reflexed apex, ending in introrse two-celled anthers, 

 also finally reflexed. The carpels are sessile, the ovaries being as 

 in Cnestis ; but the style is long, slender and reflexed, with an entire 

 or tvvo-lobed, dilated, stigmatiferous head. The fruit is sessile, 

 velvety outside, glabrous within; the seed possesses a fleshy aril. 

 Only one species of this genus is known/ a tree from Mexico and 

 the north of Colombia. It has velvety imparipinnate leaves, with 

 the leaflets symmetrical at the base ; the flowers are numerous, in 

 multiple ramified racemes of cymes, axillary to the leaves or termi- 

 nating the branches. 8 



and Poilagratler to several species of Cnestis, such 3 Bentu., Niger, 290. — Pl., in IA\ 



as C. glabra Lamk., from Bourbon and Mauritius; xxiii. 140. — II. Us., loo. cit., 1' 12, not. L— 



it appears to be due not only to the mechanical Baker, in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Aft:, i. 460. — W 



action of the hair, which easily comes off and Ann., ii. 30(5. 



remains sticking in the skin, but perhaps also to a 4 H. !>>., loc. cit., 2 I I, nol . 1 . 



brownish liquid which it contains and which fills 5 Pl., in Linncea, xxiii. 438.— 1!. II.. 



its cavity more or less completely in the dry 133, n. 7. 



herbarium specimens. 6 And in that case tiny are often unequal. 



1 In C. polyphylla Lamk., for instance, this J C. rufescens Pi., loc. cit.— Wasp., a . 

 frill surrounds the lowest quarter of the seed, ii. 305. 



which tapers in this part. Thus botanists are 8 The genus TeeniocJileena (Ho :. P., Q ■ 



wrong in characterizing Cnestis as exarillate. 433, n. 10) comes extremely near to ( 



2 Roxburgh (Cat. llort. Calc, 31) only and Cnestis, and we doubt whether ii 

 describes a single species in this country j namely be separated from the latter genus. It i 

 C. monadelpha (DC, n. 5); but the genus is tinguished chiefly by the three follow 

 certainly represented by other species in India meters. Lst. The form of its floral recepl 

 and the" neighbouring countries. which is nearly hemispherical, owing 



