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172 MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHlDACEiE. 



Sir J. Smitli \ in 1819, described tlie genus upon the materials of preceding authors 

 De CandoUe, in 1828, placed Grias among the abnormal genera of Myrtacece^- but 

 EndUcher, in 1841 ^ removed it to the dubious genera, ot Zee?/thidace(B ; Lindley, onthe 

 other hand, arranged it among the uncertain genera of Barringtoniacece *. Seemann in 

 1852 ^ considered Grias a genus of the latter family, placing it between Careya and 

 Gustavia. Pnally, it has been located by Bentliam and Hooker ® in their tribe LecytUdece 

 intermediate to Gustavia and Couratari. It consists of 4 known species, all from 

 tropical America, being very lofty trees w^ith extremely large leaves, sometimes 3 feet 

 long, and an inflorescence generally springing from the trunk or bare branches in 

 fascicles of 6 or 8 flowers, each on a distinct pedicel, bracteated at its base, all crowded 

 upon a gemmiform peduncle. The flower is of mediocre size, with an inferior oyaiy, 

 crowned in the bud by an entire globular calyx, which afterwards splits into 2 or 4 sub- 

 equal concave submembranaceous segments, persistent in the fruit ; it has 4 alternate 

 oblong fleshy petals, with parallel sides, imbricated in aestivation, then rotately expanded, 

 inserted by their claws between the androphorum and disk ; the androphorum is Mi 

 the length of the petals, resembling somewhat in form (though greatly reduced in its 

 proportions) that of Gustavia ] it is regularly urceolate, deeply cleft round its margin into 

 numerous segmental appendages, and is charged inside with 3 or 4 concentric series of 

 similar gradually shorter appendages, like those in Cow^oujpita, the inner row very short, 

 all at first erect, and suddenly incurved at the apex, a little below which, dorsally aifixed 

 upon each, is the short slender filament of a stamen, bearing 2 distinct oval anther-lobes, 



■ 



collaterally attached at a point above their middle, and opening laterally by longi- 

 tudinal fissures : the vertex of the ovary is concave within the inner crenulated margin 

 of the disk, and is broadly nmbonated in the centre, where it bears a sessile 4-rayed 

 stigma, in wliich respect it resembles Couroupita : the inferior ovary is semiglobose, 

 4-celled, with 2 to 4 ovules in each cell, suspended from the summit. The fruit in the 

 Jamaica species is the size of a sma,ll pear, of a russet colour, smooth and 8-grooved ; by 

 abortion of 3 of its cells, it produces only a single seed, of an oblong form, grooved and 

 pointed at both ends, being an edible amygdaloid embryo, probably homogeneous, as in 

 Bertholletia, and germinating in the same manner. Lunan relates that these seeds, 

 after their fall in moist places, propagate in this manner so thickly that they become 

 interlaced in thick clusters ^ The trees always grow by river-sides, or in very moist places. 

 The Firigara tetrapetala " of Aublet belongs to this genus ; its flowers correspond in every 

 respect with those of the other three species ; but its fruit is globular, 4-celled, void of pulp, 

 and contains a few irregular-shaped seeds, suspended from the summit by thick funicles. 

 The genus Cercopkora' (Plate XXXVI. b) completes the eccentric varieties of forms 

 observed in this family. It is founded upon a single flower that had fallen upon a 

 panicle of Chytroma Spruceana, in which it was entangled : this was one of Spruce's 

 plants, No. 3695, from the Uio Negro ; so that we do not yet know the kind of leaves it 



' EeeB'8 Cyclop, vol. 17. * Prodr. iii. 296. » Gen. No. 6335. * Veg. Kingd. 755 



• Bot. Her. p. 126. • Gen. PL i. 722. 7 Hort. Jam. i. p. 20. ' PI. Guian. i. 487 



A name derived from ^kpKos, cauda, ^^p„, fero, from the caudate expansion of the androphorum. 



