236 Mr. Bentham's Observations on some Genera of Plants 



Hah. ill Guiana Anglica ad flumen Essequebo. Schomburgk ! PI. exs. 

 n. 348. 

 Frutex scandens. Folta 3 — 7-pollicatia. PatiicuUv terminales amplœ, axillares 

 divaricatee. Flores majores qnam in prseeedentibus, luteovirides. 



6. S.folinsa, stipulis spinescentibus reciirvis, foliis petiolatis ovatis obtuse 

 acuminatis, paniculis terminalibus paueifloris basi foliatis. 

 Hdh. in Guiana Anglica. Sehomhurgk ! PI. exs. n. 6G1. 

 Pnl'ni iJj — i-pollicaria. hijlorescent'ia ab omnibus diversa. 



/. S. amerkana (Linn. 8p. p. 7-^1 ■), ab omnibus differre videtur, foliis apice 

 emarginatis. 



3. Anthodiscus. 



The genus Anthodiscus was established i>y G. F. ^V. Meyer in his Primitiœ 

 FInrœ Essequehoensis, p. 193, for a Guiana tree, which he places in Icosandria 

 on account of the insertion of the stamina: " annulo calycino germen cin- 

 gente." He compai-es it in that class with some Mi/rtacecv, with cicada, and 

 with Plu/tolacca ; but in a natural arrangement it differs widely from tiie first 

 in its free ovai-imn, from Acacia in its polycarpous structure, from P/u/tn/acca 

 by the dichlamydeous perigonium. Since Meyer, it appears to have been 

 generally overlooked, not being mentioned by De CandoUe either amongst 

 his T/ialamiJJorœ ov amongst the polypetulous Cali/ciflortr, and being entirely 

 omitted by Bartling, Lindley and others in their enumerations of genera. 

 Sprengel took it np, however, in his S'l/sfema, and Meisner introduces 't into 

 bis Generic Tables as a spurious Rosaceous plant, allied also in its (imper- 

 fectly known) fruit to Plii/folacca. 



Amongst Schomburgk's specimens is one wliicli answers so well in external 

 characters to Meyer's description of his Anthodiscus trifoliatus, that I have 

 little doui)t of its l)eing the same species, more especially, as I find a similar 

 specimen in Dr. Lindley's herbarium, proceeding, I believe, from Mr. Parker's 

 Deuierara collection. These specimens differ, however, from Meyer's charac- 

 ter in some points of structuie, perhaps not much attended to at that time, 

 but which are now of considerable importance in a natural arrangement. 

 The disk from which the stamens arise is hypogynous, not perigynous, — a cir- 

 cumstance that removes the plant at once from Rosaceœ ; and the general 



