236 Mr. BentHam's Observations on some Genera of Plants 



Hah. in Guiana Anglica ad flumen Essequebo. Schomburgh! PI. exs, 

 n. 348. 

 Frutex scandens. Folia 5 — 7-pollicaria. Paniculce terminales amplse, axillares 

 divaricatse. Flores majores quam in prsecedentibus, luteo-virides. 



6. S.foliosa, stipulis spinescentibns recurvis, foliis petiolatis ovatis obtuse 



acuminatis, paniculis terminalibus paucifloris basi foliatis. 

 Hab. in Guiana Anglica. Schomburgk ! PI. exs. n. 661. 

 Fnlia \\ — 2-pollicaria. Inflorescentia ab omnibus diversa. 



7. S. americana (Linn. Sp. p. 74705 ^^ omnibus difFerre videtur, foliis apice 



emarginatis. 



3. Anthodiscus. 



The genus Anthodiscus was established by G, F. W. Meyer in his Primitice 

 Florce Essequeboensis, p. 193, for a Guiana tree, which he places in Icosandria 

 on account of the insertion of the stamina : " annulo calycino germen cin- 

 gente." He compares it in that class with some Myrtacecp, with Acacia^ and 

 with Phytolacca ; but in a natural arrangement it differs widely from the first 

 in its free ovarium, from Acacia in its polycarpous structure, from Phytolacca 

 by the dichlamydeous perigonium. Since Meyer, it appears to have been 

 generally overlooked, not being mentioned by De CandoUe either amongst 

 his Thalamijiorce or amongst the polypetalous Calycijlorae, and being entirely 

 omitted by Bartling, Lindley and others in their enumerations of genera. 

 Sprengel took it up, however, in his Systema, and Meisner introduces it into 

 his Generic Tables as a spurious Rosaceous plant, allied also in its (imper- 

 fectly known) fruit to Phytolacca. 



Amongst Schomburgk's specimens is one which answers so well in external 

 characters to Meyer's description of his Anthodiscus trifoliatus, that I have 

 little doubt of its being the same species, more especially, as I find a similar 

 specimen in Dr. Lindley's herbarium, proceeding, I believe, from Mr. Parker's 

 Demerara collection. These specimens differ, however, from Meyer's charac- 

 ter in some points of structure, perhaps not much attended to at that time, 

 but which are now of considerable importance in a natural arrangement. 

 The disk from which the stamens arise is hypogynous, not perigynous, — a cir- 

 cumstance that removes the plant at once from Rosacece ; and the general 



