366 MR. J. MIERS ON THE HIPPOCRATEACEA OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
that it nearly agrees in every respect with the Hippocratea floribunda, Benth., a plant as 
different as it is possible to be, judging from the above description. It appears to me to 
approach very closely to the preceding species, agreeing in the size and shape of its leaves ; 
in its inflorescence it agrees with P. granulosa and P. Wrightiana, and in the shape of 
its capsules with .P. lepide; for as they are described to be **semiobovate," they would 
seem to be connate at their base, as in that species. 
4. HYLENZA. 
This is a very peculiar genus, proposed for a few plants, natives of Guiana and the 
Antilles, having for its type the Hippocratea comosa of Swartz, found by him in 
San Domingo, and remarkable for its inflorescence, which consists of à crowded mass of 
fine capillary branches in each axil. Swartz's typical specimen exists in the British 
Museum, but it has few remaining flowers; these, although extremely minute, quite agree 
in strueture with Swartz's description. Owing to the constant subdivision of its capillary 
branches the flowers are innumerable; but whether they are all perfect I cannot affirm ; 
for Swartz states that not one in a thousand becomes fertilized, and that when this takes 
place the pedicel becomes thickened ; yet he makes no allusion to any enlargement of the 
flower under such circumstances. In all the flowers I have seen in that and two other 
kindred species, they never exceed the diameter of half a line when fully expanded; and 
apparently they are completely developed. The 5 sepals and 5 petals are thin, membra- 
naceous, and glabrous: the disk is a short thin tube, quite glabrous; the 3 stamens are 
similar to those of Hippocratea, with which genus the ovary also accords in the atrophy 
of its axis and the extreme enlargement and prolongation of its 3 cells into as many bi- 
valved capsules, which are coriaceous and subcompressed; but the seeds, instead of being 
greatly compressed, and expanded into a large membranaceous basal wing, are here 
solidly nuciform, on a short thickened support, as in the genus Cuervea; in the fresh 
state these seeds have a white fleshy covering, analogous to that of the seeds in Clercia, 
whieh becomes hard and black in drying; they have a fleshy embryo, with very thick 
large cotyledons, without albumen, and a minute inferior radicle; thése are somewhat 
oleaginous, with a sweet taste, and are eaten by the natives, who call the tree that pro- 
duces them Amandier des bois. 
The name of the genus is derived from vA», silva, vaiw, incolo, because the trees inhabit 
shady woods, 
HYLENAA, nob. 
Sepala 5, parva, acuta, glabra, e toro carnoso ruguloso erecta, margine paulo erosula. Petala 5, sepalis 
alterna et duplo majora, oblonga, obtusa, glaberrima, submembranacea, apice reflexa, marginibus 
erosulis aut subciliatis, æstivatione quincuncialiter imbricata, persistentia. Discus subcarnosus, 
brevissime tubularis, margine flexuoso, integro, ovarium circumambiens. Stamina 3, intra discum 
inserta, illo paulo longiora; filamenta brevissima, complanata, imo latiora, erecta, apice reflexa: 
anthére transversim ovatæ, cruciatim sulcatæ, 4-locellatæ, medio dorsi extrorsum affixæ, rima trans- 
versa bivalvatim et patentim dehiscentes, luteæ. ^ Ovarium depresse trigonum, triloculare, angulis 
demum tumefactis, et ab axi atrophiato loculis gradatim maxime prolongatis et in capsulas totidem 
magnas — a ovula in quoque loculo ad axin affixa, collateraliter superposita ; stylus brevis, 
