370 MR. J. MIERS ON THE HIPPOCRATEACEX OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
its leaves. The leaves are 4 in. long, 1$ in. broad; the capsules are 14 in. long, 14 in. 
broad; the nuciform seeds are oval, and have an excessively bitter taste, in which respect 
they differ from Swartz’s and M‘Cruger’s plants. 
5. CUERVEA. 
- This is a genus hitherto undescribed, though referred to by Messrs, Bentham and 
Hooker (Gen. Pl. i. 369) as a subgenus of Hippocratea, under the manuscript name of 
Cuervea suggested by Triana. Specimens of two species in flower and fruit, collected by 
the latter botanist in Nueva Granada, exist in the Hookerian herbarium, from which I 
have drawn up the annexed diagnosis. The Zippocratea integrifolia of Seemann (Bot. 
Her. 90) is a third species, in fruit, from the Isthmus of Panama. A fourth, also in 
flower and fruit, is among Spruce's plants from the Amazonas region. The leaf and 
fruit of a fifth species are figured in Plumier's Plant. Amer. All appear to be scandent 
plants, with large, subcoriaceous, entire leaves, with axillary panicles dichotomously 
divided. The flowers bear no resemblance whatever to those of Hippocratea, the inflo- 
rescence being more like that of Pristimera, with its slender ramifications and large pale 
yellow flowers, its membranaceous sepals and petals with denticulated margins, its 
stamens and disk as in Hylenea; but the flowers are constantly anisomerous, varying 
in the relative numbers of the floral parts, and in the number of cells in the ovary. 
Cuervea partakes of the singular character exhibited in the four preceding genera, the 
complete state of atrophy of the axis of the ovary, in consequence of which its cells 
exhibit an independent growth, and gradually attain a gigantie size; but the capsules 
so produced are not valvular and dehiscent, as in the four preceding genera, but have an 
indehiscent thin brittle pericarp, containing few, large, nucumentaceous seeds, resembling 
those of Hylenea. These peculiarities establish the validity of the genus. ! 
CUERVEA, Triana, MS, (gen. nov. adhuc indescriptum). 
Sepala 5, rarius 6, rotundata, membranacea, margine erosula, viridi-lutea, valde imbricata. Petala 5, 
sæpius 7, triplo longiora, oblonga, concava, membranacea, lutea, glaberrima, expansa, margine sinuato- 
denticulata, æstivatione quincuncialiter eximie imbricata. Discus brevis, tubuloso-crateriformis, 
submembranaceus, margine tenuissimo undulato, albus, glaber. Stamina 3, sæpe 4, intra discum 
inserta, et duplo longiora, æqualia : filamenta late complanata, membranacea, imo sensim latiora, 
apice demum recurvula, glabra: anthere transversim subreniformes, filamento triplo latiores, cruciatim 
suleatz, medio dorsi apicifixæ, subbiloculares, rima horizontali bivalvatim patentissime extrorsum 
dehiscentes: pollen minimum, globosum, trisuleatum. Ovarium depressum, sub-3—4-lobum, sulcatum, 
intra discum occultum: s/ylus brevissimus, crassiuscule teres: stigma parvum, subcapitatum, 3—4- 
lobum, lobis brevibus, truncato-obtusis. Fructus 2-4-capsularis, carpellis 1-2 sæpe abortivis: capsula 
maxima, oboyata vel obrotundata, compressa, utrinque convexa, nervis crebre subparallelis striata, 
indchiscens ; pericarpio sicco, testaceo, friabili, 1-loculari, 4-spermo : semina magna, nuciformia, 
globoso-oblonga, carina crassiuscula angusta decurrente, stipitiformi, ad basin affixa; testa coriacea, 
, rugulosa, crassiuscula, raphe ramosa e chordis crebre parallelis vasorum spiralium confectis 
undique percursa: integumentum internum crassiusculum, ad testam agglutinatum: embryo exal- 
buminosus, cofyledonibus 2, crassissimis, carnosis, plano-convexis radiculam minutam basalem 
includentibus. 
Frutices subscandentes Americe intertropice : folia oblonga, majuscula, fere integra, subcoriacea, breviter 
petiolata : paniculæ avillàres, dichotom: ramose : flores pro ordine majusculi, flavi, glabri. 
