MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 167 



adheres to it along the side of the hollow cup ; from which we may infer that it is a true 

 spine, not a prickle as Kunth defines it. In P. aculeate the mouth of the corolla is 

 more oblique, more distinctly 2 -lipped, the stamens further exserted, the anther-cells, pen- 

 dent from an excurrent connective, are free, almost linear, somewhat divaricated, the style 

 being of equal length ; according to Kunth, the fruit is terete, narrowing at the summit ; 

 and Schiede says that it is oblong and costate*. Barmentiera edulis, DC, differs in its 

 (single ?) 3-foliate leaves with ovate-oblong leaflets, acute at each extremity, upon a 

 somewhat shorter and wingless petiole ; its spathaceous calyx, as in P. cerifera, splits on 

 one side only ; its fruit is terete, sulcate, roundly costate, and 3 inches long. The Cres- 

 centia edulis of Desvaux appears to form another species of Barmentiera, to which the 

 name of P. lanceolata may be given, and is distinguished by its simple (not 3-foliate) 

 leaves, approximated, without any basal spines ; it has a cylindrical, tuberculated fruit, 

 10 inches long, 2 inches in diameter, with very minute seeds and a firm fleshy pulp (or 

 with a fleshy dissepiment as in P. cerifera?). In the last-named species the axils, as in 

 P. aculeata, are not quite opposite, but they are spineless, each having always two, 

 sometimes three, trifoliate leaves, with a very narrowly winged petiole ; the calyx is 

 elongated, spathaceous, with a long rostrated apex, and splits by a single fissure as in 

 P. edulis ; the corolla has five equal lobes, stamens hardly exserted, the fruit of the 

 extraordinary length of 2 to 4 feet, scarcely an inch in diameter, and quite smooth. We 

 thus find five very distinct species of Barmentiera, viz. P. edulis, P. aculeata, B.foliolosa, 

 P. alata, and P. lanceolata. 



1. Bucrescentia. Folia fasciculata. 



1. Crescentia cujete, Linn. Sp. PI. (l a edit. 1753) p. 626 ; Jacq. Amer. (1763) p. 175, 



tab. Ill, Eragm. 30. tab. 33. f. 5 ; Linn. Sp. PL (2 a edit. 1763) p. 872 (in parte) ; 



DC. Prodr. ix. 246 (in parte) ; Hook. Bot. Mag. tab. 3430 ; Seem. Linn. Trans, 

 xxiii. 20 (in parte) : 3-orgyalis, ramis crassis, longissimis, patentibus ; foliis 5-6, 

 fasciculatis, ob diversam setatem inaequilongis, *ex axillis nodosis pseudostipulatis 

 alternis enatis, lanceolatis, imo longe cuneatis, apice gradatim acuminatis vel soepe 

 acumine brevi subito constrictis, sessilibus, utrinque glaberrimis : flore solitario, 

 axillari, vel e ramis aphyllis enato, pedunculo breyiusculo ; calyce ovato, 2-fisso, 

 lsevi ; corolla campanulata, tubo imo breviter angustato, mox latiorc, et plica transver- 

 sali introflexo, dein superne ampliato, gibbo, incurvo, longitudinalitcr plicato-sulcato, 

 fauce fere regulari, limbo 5-lobo, lobis inoequalibus, acutis, subexpansis, marginibus 

 undulatis et inciso-laciniatis ; staminibus paulo exsertis ; stylo sequilongo ; stigmate 

 2-lamellato ; fructu maximo, ovato, pericarpio duro, intus pulposo. — In Antillis et 

 Brasilia : v. s. in lib. Mus. Brit. inss. Santa Lucia, Jamaica &c. ; Brasilia (Blancket, 

 295) : in. hb. Book. St. Domingo (Sclwmburgk, a.d. 1857). 



I have already mentioned the care I have taken to identify this species and, by giving 

 it a more definite character, to extricate it from the confusion in which it has been 



* 



Kunth, who never saw the fruit of P. alata, stated, upon the authority of Bonpland, that it was globular, and 



4 to 6 inches in diameter : this was no doubt a mistake of Bonpland' s, whose testimony is often doubtful. 



VOL. XXVI. 



2 A 



