MR. J. MIERS ON THE HIPPOCRATEACEÆ OF SOUTH AMERICA. 389 
bracts, or sometimes with only one or two very short peduncles in each axil, bearing on 
their summit two pedicellated flowers ; or these branchlets are in other cases divided into 
four pedicels, and again, more rarely, dichotomously divided into three or twelve pedicels, 
each branchlet bracteolated at its base, and bearing a single flower. When fasciculated 
upon single pedicels, the flowers are generally much larger. The flower consists of five 
sepals, five alternate larger petals, often pectinately fimbriated, as in Pristimera. The 
disk is one of its most distinguishing and constant features, greatly resembling that of 
Prionostemma, only always glabrous; it is of considerable diameter relatively, free on its 
broad flat margin, beneath which the petals are affixed; it then rises in a broad, slightly 
elevated, annularly pulvinate form, hollow in the centre, where three stamens are fixed 
around the ovary; the filaments are broad, recurved at their summit; the anthers are 
transversely reniform, upon a wedge-shaped fleshy connective, fixed on the apex of the 
filament, as in Anthodon, and bursting in a similar manner. The fruit is a large oval 
drupe, somewhat smaller than that of Clercia; its pericarp is thick, with a rather soft 
mesoderm, which becomes hard, coriaceous, and friable when dried. It contains several 
angularly oval seeds, about the size of a hazel-nut, imbedded in a small quantity of pulp; 
these have a thickish coriaceous testa, differing from that of Clercia in having an im- 
bedded simple raphe, linear in form, which, springing from a nearly basal hilum, ascends 
to the other extremity, where it is lost in an apical, obscure chalaza; the seeds are 
exalbuminous, with two large fleshy cotyledons, as in Clercia. The following is a full 
diagnosis of the genus. 
Rappr, DC. 
Raddisia, Leand.; Clercia (in parte), Vell. 
Sepala 5, semiorbicularia, carnosula, margine membranaceo denticulata, vel spe pectinatim fimbriata. 
Petala 5, duplo majora, ovata, subcarnosa, margine late membranacea, integra, eroso-denticulata 
aut pectinato-fimbriata, æstivatione quincuncialiter valde imbricata, demum patentim expansa. Discus 
majusculus, carnosus, glaber, ad marginem imo latus, planus, et subpentagonus, medio paulo elevatus, 
annulari-pulvinatus, et in centro cavus. Stamina 3, intra discum inserta; filamenta complanata, 
imo sensim dilatata, apice divaricatim reflexa; anthere subparve, transversim reniformi-globosæ, 
cruciatim sulcatæ, supra connectivum carnosum cuneiforme affixæ, apicifixæ, sub-1-loculares, rima 
verticali transversim dehiscentes, et tunc campani-hiantes subextrorsum vertentes. Ovarium de- 
pressum,*conieum, subtrigonoideum, 3-loculare: ovula in quoque loculo 6, biserialia, axi affixa. 
Stylus brevis, teres. Stigma minute 3-lobum. Drupa majuscula, ovata, pericarpio crasso, indehiscente, 
epicarpio subtenui, coriaceo, mesocarpio molli, crasso, endocarpio tenui, 3-loculari, dissepimentis 
tenuibus, obsoletis aut fenestratis: semina circiter 12, ovata, vaga, in pulpa parca nidulantia ; 
testa fusca, crassiuscule coriacea, hilo notata, raphe tenui filiformi omnino immersa ab hilo ad cha- 
lazam apicalem adscendente ; integumentum intermedium pallide. corneum, ad testam sub-aggluti- 
natum: integumentum internum tenuissimum, membranaceum, albidulam: embryo exalbuminosus, 
cotyledonibus 2, crassissimis, carnosis, radicula brevissima eis semiocclusa, hilo proxima. 
Frutices Brasilienses, sepius scandentes : folia opposita aut subalterna, oblonga, integra vel obtuse serrata, 
breviter petiolata; panicule axillares, longius aut brevius dichotome ramose, bractealate, aut sepe e 
pedunculo valde abortivo, ramisque tali modo reductis, ut flores plurimi longe pedicellati et fasciculati 
appareant ; flores sepe majusculi. 
1. Rappra (Raddisia) ARBOREA, Leand. Trans. Acad. Munich, vii. 244, t. 15; DC. Prodr. 
VOL. XXVIII. 3a 
