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MR. J. MIERS ON THE LECYTHIDACE^. I97 



ft 



gato erecto, vel racemo simplici axillari ; racM crassa, angulata, geniculata, nodis 



alternis prominulis et approximatis, circa 50-flora ; floribus sessilibus, cum nodis 



articulatis, bracteis 2 obtuse ovatis stipatis ; calycis Kmbo breviter cupulato, pro- 



funde fisso in sepala 2 ovata, apice obtuse 3-dentata, valde coucava, patentia, 



coriacea, tomento brunneo opace pruinosa; petalis 6, ovato-oblongis, obtusis 



cavis, ochroleucis ; ovario infero, semigloboso, 4-loculari, ovulis triseriatim erectis, 



sessilibus, vertice intra discum subplano, radiatim striate; stylo subulato, sub- 



curvato, sepalis dimidio breviore ; stigmate minimo, papiUoso-lobato : pyxidio 



majusculo, oblo ngo-o vali, cortice Isevi, pallido, subcrasso, vix rimoso, paullo 



medium zona calycari lineata circulari notato; vitta interzonali convexa; zona 



superiore minima, fauce obtusa, superne concava ; opercalo alte mammseformi, a 



columella cylindrica mox soluto et caduco ; endocarpio crassissimo, pallide lignoso, 



4-loculari, vel e septis evanidis tandem 1-loculari, 40-60-spernio, seminibus imbri- 



cato-erectis. In America tropicali, Kio Orinoco {Bonpland) et in Guiana : v. s. 



plant, in Jierh. variis, Guiana (Schomb. 439) ; in herb. Book., Para {Riedel, 611) ; 



regione Amazonica {Burchell, 9473-9879) : v. fruct, in Mus. Keio., in Trinidade 



introd. [Purdie). 



A magnificent tree, above 100 feet higb, with a trunk 2J feet thick ; the axils of tbo 



sup 



tcrmmal branchlets are | in. apart ; the leaves are 8-24 in. long, 3 J-6 in. broad, on a 

 petiole 9-18 lines long, and with about 25 pairs of nerves, with others intermediate and 



shorter. The terminal panicle is 8 in. lon^, with 



1 



rly equal in length, 



with a rachis 2 lines thick when dried, its zigzag turns (with prominent nodes) 2 

 apart; the oval bracts very small; the lobes of the calyx 7 lines long, 6 lines broad; the 

 petals 15 lines long, 8 lines broad ; the androphorum 1 in. in diam. ; the pyxidium 

 (Plate XXXVII, figs. 1-4) 6 in. long, 5 in. in diam., with a smooth palish lenticellated 

 bark, which does not crack and fall off; the calycary zone, | in. below the apex, is 3 in. in 

 diam, ; the opercular zone, 8 lines in diam., is contracted within into a depressed concave 

 mouth, 6 lines in diam. ; the operculum is cylindrical, 5 lines broad, 5 lines high, round 

 and umbilicated at the summit ; as the attached columella withers, it breaks away and 

 falls off, as Bonpland has well shown both in his upper and lower figure ; and this offers 

 a marked distinction between this and the following species. Poiteau wrongly inferred 

 two errors inBonpland's drawings — one that in the lower figure the fruit is inverted, the 

 other that the columella and mode of attachment of seeds are reversed : but this is not 

 80 ; for Bonpland's drawing is quite correct. The pericarp is very thick, is originally 



4-celled, with from 6 to 10 seeds in each cell, which can only escape after the decay of 

 the shell. 



2. Bertholletia nobilis, nob. : JBertholletia excelsa, Berg (non BonpL), in Mart. PI. 



Bras. I. c. p. 478, tab. 60-61 quoad infl orescentiam et fructus; Poiteau (in parte) 

 ^lem. Mus. xiii. tab. 8 (nee 4) ; Hook. Kew Journ. ii. 74 : proccrrima, trunco crasso, 

 ad alt. 100 ped. nudo, superne ramosissimo, ramis deflexis, ramulis validis, tcretibus, 

 fusco-brunneis, glauco-pruinosis ; foliis oblongis, imo obtusatis et in pctiolum subito 



VOL. XXX. 2 D 



