﻿MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACEtE. 161 



which first descend and then ascend in a Mppocrepiform manner, being corruo-ately 

 plicated as in Couratari and Cm^iniana. 



Bertholetla (Plate XXXIII. c) has an inflorescence in axillary or terminal racemes 

 shorter than the large leaves, its flowers being nearly sessile, with 3 deciduous bracts at 

 their base ; they are easily recognized by their calyx, the free, cup-shaped portion of which 

 is divided into 2 large fleshy concave sepals, notched at their apex by 3 small teeth ; 

 they have 6 oblong coloured petals, sHghtly reflected at the apex, and patently expanded, 

 unequal in size, some of them often cleft, appearing like 9 petals ; these are fixed by their 

 claws, agglutinated between the androphorum and disk, as in the preceding genera. The 

 androphorum resembles that of Couroupita, but differs in the echinated appendao-es of 

 the hood, which are obtusely subulate, and void of stamens ; the inner surface of the 

 cup-shaped ring, however, is densely furnished with short club-shaped appendages, each 

 bearing a fertile stamen with a short slender filament and a small oval 2 -celled anther 

 and is well figured by Poiteau^ and by Berg^; the inferior ovary is turbinated, 4-grooved, 

 4- rarely 5-celled, with about 5 sessile ovules in each cell, radiating from the axis ; its 

 vertex is slightly concave, with a long, terete, incurved style in the centre, surmounted 

 by a minute, globular, papillose stigma. Its pyxidium greatly resembles that of Coii- 

 r&upita in size and shape, marked by two zonal lines, the lower one, some distance below 

 the summit, caused by the vestiges of the fallen sepals, the upper one forming an oper- 

 cular opening only half an inch in diameter; when dry it is covered by a thick brittle 

 hark-like epicarp, which in one species peels off irregularly, leaving a ligneous or sub- 

 6SSC0US shell : within are seen the remains of 4 coriaceous dissepiments ; the columella 

 is too thick to allow of its escape at the summit, and, shrinking by drying, sometimes 

 draws the operculum attached to it into the cavity of the fruit : for the same reason the 

 seeds cannot effect their escape, and remain in the shell until it rots upon the ground : 

 the 4 cells contain about 20 to 30 dry seeds, closely compacted round the columella, to 

 which they are attaclied by a hilum near their base. Eerg asserts' that the seeds are 

 enveloped by a yellow fleshy pulp, which, by desiccation, leaves each enclosed in a di- 

 stinct sort of cell : the fruits I examined afforded no trace whatever of any such pulp ; 

 and Bonpland, Poiteau, and Schomberg, who examined them in the living state, and give 

 abundant details concerning them, are all silent as to the existence of pulpy matter : we 

 have, however, direct evidence on this point, in a specimen belonging to the Linncan 

 Society, where a cluster of 5 seeds, evidently the contents of one cell, are agglomerated 

 very closely together upon a portion of the columella, without the slightest trace of any 

 pulp or of any funicle : we have here, therefore, a strong proof of the inaccuracy of 

 Berg's statement regarding? the fact. The seeds, well known as the Brazil nuts of the 



shops, are easily distinguished from Sapucaia-nuts by their acutely trigonoid form, well 

 figured by Poiret, Bonpland, and Berg ; the outer covering, or testa, is thick and coria- 

 ceous, with broad longitudinal channels at the angles, filled with numberb of spiral 



i 



^ Mem. ilus. xiii. 149^ tab. 4. fig. 6. 

 Fl. Bras. I. c. tab. 60, on the fourth line of figures, the last of which shows the sterile appendages of the hood. 



' In Mart. Fl. Braa. 7 /• n 170 



