170 MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 



spherical, 4 inches in diameter, supported by the persistent disk, is obsoletely 4-grooved 

 towards the apex ; the pericarp, half a line thick, is hard, smooth externally and closely 

 pitted with concave semiimmersed glands, is lined inside with an adherent membranous 

 plate formed of very thin laminae, in which four thin equidistant flattened nervures 

 rising from the base to the summit are imbedded ; it is filled with a solid pulp, much 

 shrunk in drying, but still soft, and composed of numerous laminae agglutinated together, 

 interspersed with numerous cells polished inside, twice the length and breadth of the 

 seeds ; the seeds are cuneately oblong, heart-shaped, greatly flattened, 3 lines long, 2|- 

 lines broad, with a firm rugose testa, a much shorter cordately orbicular tegmen suddenly 

 narrowed below into a thread-like tube which terminates in the hilum ; the cotyledons 

 are white and of wax-like texture. 



4. Crescentia coxeertieolia, nob. : arbor cucurbitifera Americana, Sloane, Jam. ii. 



172 : Cujete n° 5, Plum. Gen. 23 : trunco laevi, albidulo, valde ramoso ; axillis 



nodosis, subapproximatis, prominulis ; foliis in nodis 7-8, fasciculatis, cuneato- 



oblongis, obtusis, fusco-viridibus, nitentibus : flore solitario ; calyce 2-fisso ; corolla 



campanulata, limbo valde laciniato ; fructu mole mediocri, sphaerico, seminibus 



cuneato-cordiformibus, valde compressis. — In Jamaica. 



According to Sloane, this is a tree 20 to 25 feet high, with a trunk 6 or 7 inches in 



diameter, having a whitish smooth bark. It differs from the preceding in its much smaller 



leaves, which are comparatively broader and rounder at the apex. Seven or eight tufted 



leaves spring out of each node, these being 1 inch apart ; they are dark green, smooth, 



and shining, 3 inches long, 16 lines broad ; the peduncle is 1 inch long ; the corolla is 1^ 



inch long, of a dirty greenish colour, with a much laciniated border, speckled with 



brownish streaks : the fruit is spherical or somewhat oval, 4± inches in diameter ; the 



eeds, like those of the foregoing species, are 3 J lines long and 3 lines broad 



5 



resce^tia plectantha, nob. ; Cresentia cujete, Veil. (non. Jacq.), Fl. Elum. 269, 

 vol. vi. tab. 103 : 2-orgyalis, ramulis divaricatis ; foliis 3-7, fasciculatis, e verruca 

 squamosa ortis, lineari-lanceolatis, a medio ad basin spathulato-cuneatis, apice 

 rotundatis, cum acumine subito brevi et obtusulo, sessilibus, submembranaceis, 

 viridibus, supra glabris, subnitentibus, reticulatis, subtus pallidioribus, nervis 

 tenuibus vix prominulis, costa subtenui prominente, obsolete puberula : floribus ex 

 axillis vel e verrucis propriis solitariis, pedunculo circa medium 2-bracteolato ; 

 calyce imo subgloboso, mox latiore, et oblongo, in lobos 2 aequales fere ad basin 

 fisso, vel hinc fissura unica, illinc in lacinias 3 tertia parte breviores irregulariter 

 rupto, coriaceo, nitido, extus glandulis semiimmersis sparsim punctato ; corolla imo 

 coarctata, ultra calycem campanulata, antice et postice paulo compressa, dorso 



rectiore, ventre inflata, et hinc infra medium plica magna transversali profunde 



introflexa, longitudinaliter sulcato-corrugata, undique glandulis minutis carnosulis 

 creberrime punctulata, limbo subobliquo, 5-lobo, lobis majusculis, fere fequalibus, 

 subreflexis, acute acuminatis, marginibus integris, undulato-crispatis, 2 superioribus 

 paulo majoribus et erectioribus, cunctis aestivatione profunde introflexis ; sta- 

 minibus ultra faucem vix exsertis ; ovario oblongo, in diseum magnum semicupularem 



