MR. JOHN MIERS ON THE GENUS CRESCENTIA. 179 



This species is distinct from any of the foregoing in the form and structure of its 

 fruit, in its leaves, which are somewhat smaller and narrower, with more distant nerves 

 than those of the preceding species ; and the flower is also different. The leaves are 4 ■ J-8 

 inches long (including the rather stout petiole of 3 lines), and If- 2 J inches broad : the 

 peduncle is 1J inch long, and somewhat slender; the calyx is If inch long, 7 lines in 

 diameter; the tube of the corolla is If inch long, the open oblique mouth nearly an inch 

 in diameter ; the upper lip is erect, \ inch long ; the lower, somewhat deflected lip is 

 f inch long. A longitudinal section and moiety of the fruit, evidently not mature, is 

 glued upon the same sheet as the plant : it is 2J inches long, 2 inches broad, and regu- 

 larly oval ; the pericarp is thin and testaceous, with 4 equidistant longitudinal nerves 

 imbedded inside : in the moiety exhibited, the 2 lateral nerves are barren, the interme- 

 diate one, 1 line broad, emits on each side a broad thickened membranaceous plate, quite 

 free from the rest of the shell, in which the immature seeds are imbedded. This feature 

 alone gives a very distinctive character to the species. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES 



Plate VII. 



Pig. 1. Crescentia plectantha : a fascicle of its leaves seated in a warty excrescence formed of imbricated 



ligneous scales upon the older branches. 

 Fig. 2. A flower of the same in bud, when the solidly closed fleshy calyx only is seen, before it becomes 



ru 



Fig. 3. The same after the bursting of the calyx, showing the corolla corrugately plicated, with the lobes 



of its border wholly inflected, in the manner of its peculiar mode of aestivation. 



ard 



plicature of the tube upon the ventral side. 



Fig. 5. The same cut open, to exhibit the position of the stamens in regard to the plicature of the tube. 



remo 



surmounted 



The 



having just fallen off; it is seated within the polished fleshy disk, and is punctated all over 



with numerous small concav 

 bottom of large excavations. 



Fig. 8. 



bowing 



very numerous, crowded, black, shining ovules. 



Fig. 9. A transverse section of the same, exhibiting the position of the four longitudinal parietal placen- 



tations in its 1-locular cell; upon the surface of the prominent fleshy placentae are seen the 



ovules are 



>/ 



ovule, highly magnified 



Pig. 11. A longitudinal section of the ripe fruit, from which half of the pericarp and the whale of the 



seminiferous pulpy mass have been removed: there are now seen remaining the many 

 ligneous cords or nervures which spring from the base of the cell, at which point they are 

 somewhat imbricated; but they immediately divaricate, rising upwards free from, but close to 



