168 MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 



involved. It forms an umbrageous tree, 20 feet high, with long, divided branches, which 

 extend horizontally. The fasciculated leaves are of different lengths in each tuft, varying 

 from 4* to 2h inches in length, or even sometimes less than an inch, and from 8 to 15 lines 

 in breadth ; they are glabrous, sometimes shining, bright green, gradually decreasing in 

 breadth towards the base, where their entire margins are decurrent along the slender 

 midrib to the point of its origin. The solitary flower springs out of the axils, or often 

 from the trunk, at uncertain intervals, sometimes at a distance of only 3 inches from the 

 ground. The peduncle is slender, 8 to 14 lines long. The calyx is 8-9 lines long. The 

 tube of the corolla is \\ inch long, 4 lines in diameter at the base, thence suddenly 

 enlarges, with a transverse duplicature 7 lines above the base, as sbown in Sehoinburgk's 

 specimen, not a circumambient constriction, such as appears in Jacquin's figures ; it is 

 S lines in diameter at the mouth ; the lobes of the border are 5-8 lines long, 6-7 lines 

 broad, acute at the summit, with the margins obtusely sinuato-crenate. The fruit is 

 oval, often a foot in length. Schomburgk's specimen fully agrees with Jacquin's drawing 

 of this species, and explains the real character of the constriction shown in the corolla, 

 which in that drawing is doubtful and ill-defined ; the specimens in the British Museum 

 equally accord with that drawing, but the flowers, unfortunately, are all much eaten 



away or broken. 



Jacquin, however, subsequently published the drawing of the flower of a plant culti- 

 vated in the Garden of Schonbrunn, which he doubtfully referred to this species. The 

 flower is much larger, the calycine segments 10 lines long and much spread ; the tube 

 of the corolla, beautifully marked with reddish longitudinal stripes, is \\ inch long, more 

 than twice the breadth at its base of that in the typical drawing, is 1 inch broad in the 

 mouth ; the lobes of the border are broader, more deeply and more acutely laciniated. 

 Sir W. Hooker subsequently figured a plant grown at Kew, the flowers of which singu- 

 larly resemble that of Jacquin's last drawing ; the only difference is that the peduncle is 

 shorter and stouter. There is no specimen of it in the Hookerian herbarium ; but I 

 noticed two loose flowers of it, which by mistake have been glued upon the same sheets 

 as the specimens of C. latifolla from Jamaica, and of C. cucurbitina from Cuba. These 

 flowers are probably those cultivated at Kew by Sir W. Hooker, and perhaps represent 

 another species closely allied to C. cujete, but different from it. 



A 



2. Crescentia ctjneifolia, Gardn. in Hook. Jo. Bot. ii. 422; DC. Prodr. ix. 246 : C. cujete, 



Seem, (non Linn.), in parte (loc. cit. 20) : Crescentia n° 1, Browne, Jam. p. 255 : 

 cortice cinereo, suberoso, rimoso, foveolato-punctato ; ramis adscendentibus, ramulis 

 patentim divaricatis ; foliis e nodis majusculis compressis 2-8, fasciculatis, obovatis, 

 apice abrupte breviter acuminatis, imo longe cuneatis, sessilibus, virentibus, supra 

 nitentibus, glabris, subtus opace pallidioribus, praesertim in costa nervisque subpu- 

 berulis : floribus solitariis, rarius geminis, pedunculo medio 3-bracteolato ; calyce 

 ato, in segmenta 2-3 subsequalia fere ad basin rupto ; corolla campanulata, 



tub 



landulis minutis pellucidis punctato, ventre circa medium pi 



ersali signato, limbo 5-lobo, lobis valde acuminatis, marginibus irregulariter laci 



subbilabiato, labio superiore bilobo, lobis subplanis, inferiore trilobo, lon<*i 



tudinaliter plicato, lobo intermedio latiore ; staminibus inclusis ; stylo rcquilon 



o 



