EUBIACF^. 333 



compressed perpendicular to the partition and loculicidal in its upper 

 part, that is above the calyx which persists to the fruit below the 

 summit. The seeds, compressed-angular, often surrounded by an 

 aril which extends to the funicle, have a fleshy albumen and an 

 embryo occupying half or two-thirds of its length ; it has a cylindrico- 

 conical radicle and flattened cotyledons, oval or elliptic. They are 

 small trees and shrubs of the Antilles and warm parts of Mexico. 

 The leaves are opposite, elongate, entire, coriaceous, with interpetiolar 

 stipules, and the flowers^ are axillary, united in pedunculate, 

 3-flowered cymes, often reduced to one or two flowers. 



In V, Ltuueana, from Guatemala, type of a section Tacourca,^ the 

 axillary flowers are solitary ; the dehiscence of the fruit is septicidal, 

 and the margin of the seed is dilated to a short circular wing. In 

 another, Portlandia, from St. Domingo, of which the genus Isidorea ^ 

 has been made, the flowers, solitary and axillary, have a pentamerous, 

 subvalvate corolla ; the fruit is septicidal, the seed arillate, and the 

 leaves rigid, terminating in a point. In Coutarea,* from tropical 

 America, the corolla, decidedly imbricate, is often curved and gibbous 

 on one side ; the seeds are bordered by a small circular wing as in 

 Tacourea, and the 1-3-flowered cymes are axillary or subterminal. 

 Coutaportla,^ which connects the true Portlandia with Goutarea, has a 

 tetramerous flower, a somewhat irregular angular corolla, with 

 reduplicate and imbricate lobes, and two ovarian cells the placentas 

 of which bear only two or three descending and the same number of 

 ascending ovules (fig. 327). The capsule is loculicidal and more or 

 less septicidal at the summit (fig. 328) ; the sepals separate from it, 

 but not so early as in Coutarea ; and the seeds are rounded or 

 ellipsoid, flat and thin at the margin, but without wing. They are 

 Mexican plants with axillary flowers, small and solitary. 



Thus defined, this genus contains some fifty species of American 

 woody plants,^ some of which are not yet described. 



^ Ordinarily large, handsome, white, yellowish Oe//. ii. 42, n. 38. 



or red, often odorous. * H. Bn. Adamonia, xii. 300. 



2 H.Bx. Adansonia, xii. 302. ^ Smith, Ic. Pict. i. t. 6 — Jacq. Amcr. t. 44, 



3 A. Rich. Rub. 204, t. 15, fig. 1.— DC. Prodr. 182, fig. 20 {CoHtana).~PoH-L, PL Bras. Ic. t. 

 iv. 405.— Eni>l. Gen. n. 3250.— B. H. Geit. ii. 200 {Coutarea) .—Gm%¥.T\. Fl. Brit. JF.-Ind. 323 

 46, n. 51. (Coutarea), 324; Cut. PI. Cub. 126.— Hemsl. 



♦ AuBL. GuiaiK i. 314, t. 122.— J. Gen. 202: Diagn. PI. Nov. Mexic.et Centr. Amer. Zl.—Bot. 



Mem. Mm. yi. ZSS.—Gmut^.f. Fruct.iii. 79, t. Mag. t. 286, 4534.— W alp. Hep. ii. 506, 510 



194.— Lamk. ni. t 257.— Rich. Rub. 207.— DC. (Coutarea) ; Ann. ii. 776. 

 Prodr. iv. 350. -Enul. Gen. n. 3278.— B. II. 



