166 MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 



■ 



correspondents abroad could be induced to send to Europe fruits accompanied by speci 

 mens of the plants, together with buds and flowers in different stages of growth preserved 

 in spirits. This mode of inquiry would lead to more certain results, because the flowers 

 in dried specimens become black and very brittle in drying, so that it is difficult to 

 ascertain their characters with accuracy. 



The species are certainly more numerous than are here enumerated, as shown by the 

 fruits I have examined; for instance, in the British Museum there are two, collected 

 in Peru by Ruiz and Pavon, to which they assigned the name of Crescentia cujete. 

 One is quite pyriform, 4 J inches long, 3 inches broad ; the other is oblong, equally round 

 at both extremities, 4f inches long, 2f inches in diameter, with seeds imbedded in pulp, 

 and internally organized as I have described in Crescentia plectantha ; in the one the 

 seeds are rounded, in the other deeply emarginated at the apex. In the same museum 

 are other, globular fruits of the genus, some with an extremely thick pericarp, and which 

 cannot be assigned to any known species. 



In the following enumeration I have excluded from the genus the Crescentia alata of 



Kunth, convinced that both it and C. aculeata belong to Parmentiera. Dr. Seemann came 

 to the same conclusion with regard to the latter, but retained the former species in Cres- 

 centia. I have lately made a careful examination of the plants belonging to this group. 

 In the Hookerian herbarium there is a specimen referred to C. aculeata of Kunth, which 

 was collected in Mexico by Schiede (under his no. 1207) ; this is very different from one 

 of another collection made by Schiede, now existing in the British Museum, which well 

 agrees with C. aculeata, as well as with one from Zimapan (Coulter, 1007). I propose 

 to distinguish Schiede's no. 1207 by the name of Parmentiera foliolosa-, it closely 

 approaches the Crescentia alata of Kunth in its alternate cupular nodes quite void of 

 spines, with several 3-foliate leaves growing out of each axi 1 ; in the last-mentioned 

 plant, which should now be called Parmentiera alata, we find generally in each axil 

 one, sometimes two principal 3-foliate leaves, accompanied by two lateral simple leaves : 

 in P. foliolosa we see three, sometimes four fasciculated 3-foliate leaves, generally with- 

 out any simple leaves ; they differ from the former in their smaller size, their submembra- 

 naceous leaflets, cuneately ovate, or obovate, upon a very narrowly winged petiole of nearly 

 equal length, while in P. alata the leaflets are spathulately oblong, almost linear, coriaceous, 

 upon a broadly winged petiole of twice their length : both species are without spines ; 

 and it is evident that to whatever group the former is assigned, the latter must accom- 

 pany it. Now in P. foliolosa the flowers quite conform to those of P. aculeata ; its 

 calyx is pale, less fleshy than in Crescentia, and moreover, when closed in the bud, is 

 terminated by a long slender rostrated apex as in P. cerifera, but it splits into three 

 unequal divisions ; the corolla, as in the other species of Parmentiera, is gradually cairn 

 panulate, with a border of five subequal lobes, whose margins are crenately sinuated or 

 crispate. If we examine P. aculeata attentively, we find that its axils are rarely quite 

 opposite, and that in almost every cupular node formed by the spine, and which has a 

 horny margin, there are always two 3-foliate leaves, often with a third, simple, smaller 

 . leaf, and that when the horny node is not spinescent at its outer extremity, as 

 sometimes happens, it is cup-shaped and embraces the petiole of a 3-foliate leaf, and 



