MR. J. MIERS ON THE HIPPOCRATEACEJE OF SOUTH AMERICA. 417 ' 
ovatis, pallide aurantiacis, carnosulis, marginibus submembranaceis, minute denti- 
eulatis; disco eum ovario staminibusque ut in diagnosi generica; ovario mox 
aucto ovato-oblongo, triloculari, cum ovulis 2 collateralibus in quoque loculo 
suspensis : drupa ovata, apice obtusatim angustiore et trisulcatim umbilicata, imo 
subito angustata et rotundata, sepalis petalis staminibusque immutatis suffulta ; 
pericarpio crasse coriaceo, nitente, pallide aurantiaco, 3-loculari, disstpimentis fere 
evanidis; seminibus 5-6, ovatis, subnuciformibus, pulpa molli glutinosa involutis. 
In Brasilia, prov. Rio de Janeiro: v. v. in montibus Organensibus, et sicc. in 
herb. meo. 
I found this plant in the Organ Mountains in February 1838, both in flower and in fruit, 
and at the same time made a drawing of it, adding observations and analytical notes of 
its anomalous structure. Its branches are somewhat stout and straight, erecto-patent ; : 
their axils from 1-2 in. apart; the leaves are 3-43 in. long, 15-14 in. broad, on a petiole 
3-41 lines long; the panicles are 14-2 in. long, quite glabrous; the peduncle 3 lines, 
the primary branches 1-2 lines long, the secondary and tertiary each 6-10 lines long, 
the fourth pair 4 lines, the remaining ones diminishing gradually from 3 to 1 line in 
length, the last bearing a small agglomerated head of four flowers, decussately arranged, 
each flower being half concealed within a kind of involucre of three fimbriated bracteoles ; 
the flowers are therefore very numerous in each panicle, which is very much ramified ; 
the flower is small, quite glabrous, and of a yellowish colour, the nearly erect petals 
being i line long. Soon after the opening of the flower the ovary becomes rapidly elon- 
gated to more than twice its former length; the fruit is 1} in. long, ł inch in diameter, 
with a polished and rather soft coriaceous pericarp 1 line in thickness; it contains 
from four to six oval seeds, 8 lines long, 5 lines in diameter, enveloped in a copious 
mucilaginous pulp, the thin dissepiments being almost evanescent; the coriaceous testa 
of the seeds is somewhat brittle when dried, and includes within its substance a close 
network of white elastie filaments, which may be pulled out in copious threads when it 
is broken across; the thin inner integument adheres somewhat firmly to the testa, 
leaving the exalbuminous embryo quite free; the two oval plano-convex cotyledons 
are fleshy, of a reddish-white colour when fresh, and are filled with numerous minute 
reddish glands or cells, which emit a viscid and very astringent juice, and when cut 
across are also found to include an abundance of white spiral threads, sometimes in thick 
bundles, which may be pulled out in long threads, as in the testa; the radicle of the 
embryo, which points to the summit of the fruit, is very short, somewhat conical, with a 
short terete plumule enclosed between the cotyledons. It should also be mentioned that 
the leaves, peduncle, and all the ramifications of the inflorescence, as well as the.sepals 
and petals, are also replete with numerous threads of white spiral vessels. 
2. KIPPISTIA COGNATA, nob.: erecta, ramosa, ramulis teretibus, subgriseis, substriatis, 
lenticellis verruculosis, ad axillas oppositas paulo compressis et dilatatis: foliis 
oppositis, elliptico-oblongis vel elongato-oblongis, imo subobtusis, sursum sensim 
angustioribus, et in acumen angustius obtusulum abrupte attenuatis, marginibus 
cartilagineis subrevolutis, obsolete aut crenato-serratis, supra leete vel subpallide 
