a new Pitcher-plant from British Guiana. 431 



The floral organs differ chiefly from those of Sarracenia in the great reduc- 

 tion in the number of parts. Instead of three distinct series of floral envelopes 

 (three external bracts, five sepals and five petals), Heliamphora has but four, 

 five, or (as observed by Mr. Schomburgk) six leaflets altogether, of which the 

 external are somewhat thicker and more herbaceous than the more internal 

 ones, though all are to a certain degree petaloid and coloured. Where there 

 are four or five, the aestivation and position is the same as those of the sepals 

 of Sarracenia, but they are more imbricate, each leaflet overlapping more or 

 less the next opposite one on one side, even at their insertion. I have not seen 

 any flowers with more than five leaflets, and I therefore do not know the po- 

 sition of the sixth. 



The stamens are indefinite, and placed as in Sarracenia ; there were twenty- 

 one in the flower-bud 1 opened ; from twenty-seven to thirty-two in most 

 flowers, according to Mr. Schomburgk. The anthers are versatile, turned in- 

 wards in the bud, and the cells open longitudinally. 



The ovary differs from Sarracenia in being three-celled only, instead of five- 

 celled ; in other respects, the number, arrangement, and structure of the ovules 

 agree perfectly with Sarracenia. The style is erect and cylindrical, but is 

 truncate, and minutely ciliated at the apex, with an obscurely three-lobed 

 stigmatic surface, without any tendency to the remarkable foliaceous expan- 

 sion of the stigma of Sarracenia. 



I have not seen the capsule of Heliamphora, but Mr. Schomburgk describes 

 it as "three-celled, three-valved, with numerous seeds." A few ripe seeds 

 communicated to me by him are rather larger than in Sarracenia jiava and 

 psittacina, the only two species of which I have the fruit*: the testa is 

 brown, less tuberculated than in Sarracenia, but expanded into a membranous 

 wing surrounding the seed. The albumen and embryo are the same in both 

 genera. 



From this sketch it will be seen that all the essentials of arrangement and 

 insertion of the floral organs, and of the conformation of the ovary and seed, 

 are as in Sarracenia, and place this new plant in the same Order ; the differ- 

 ences in the number of parts cannot here have any other than a generic im- 



* The seeds of Sarracenia are described as " minute," a vague term, scarcely applicable in this case, 

 as in both the above- quoted species they are full one line long, and obovoid, 



yoL. XVIII. 3 jf 



