allied to the Natural Order BurmanniaceEe. 547 



Cymbocarpa. It is from three to five inches in height, of a uniform whitish 

 colour, but slightly tinged with purple. The root is composed of small fibres, 

 close to which the stem divides, somewhat dichotomously, into several erect 

 branches, which are sometimes flexuose ; the leaves are alternate, sessile, 

 acute, bractelike, and not quite so much adpressed as those of Dictyostega. 

 The terminal solitary flowers are three-fourths of an inch long ; above the ova- 

 rium the tube of the perianthium narrows into a long slender form, somewhat 

 widening upwards, and the upper portion is suddenly enlarged to three times 

 the diameter of the lower, and marked by three roundish oblong swellings a 

 short distance beneath the petals : the perianthium is of a lilac colour, some- 

 what darker below ; the border being divided into six unequal erect teeth, of 

 which the three outer are longer and more acute, the three inner ones (petals) 

 being somewhat broader, more obtuse, and slightly mucronulate ; they show 

 the markings of the aestivation, as described in the generic character : the 

 three hollow cavities corresponding with the external protuberances are fun- 

 nel-shaped, and terminate acutely towards the base of the tube, the margin of 

 their orifices being rounded and deeply notched in front, whence the stamens 

 proceed : this saccate tube bears some resemblance to the small saccate fila- 

 ments of Dictyostega and Burmannia, and may be supposed by analogy to 

 constitute part of the stamen. The filament, which appears in the emargina- 

 tion of the sac, is at first erect, short, round and slender, being somewhat 

 swollen at its apex, where it is suddenly bifurcated, its arms being divaricated 

 almost horizontally, and somewhat thrown back upon one another ; at their 

 origin they are no thicker than the simple portion of the filament, and are 

 about the same length, but they gradually enlarge towards their summit, and 

 terminate abruptly each by a single anther-cell, which is adnate to it by its 

 back ; attached to the rear of the filament, and originating at its base, are 

 two membranaceous winglike appendages, joined by their inner sides just 

 above its bifurcation, and expanding to three times its length into a gibbous 

 oblong body on each side, erect, and somewhat connivent in a direction cor- 

 responding with the mouth of the sac : the whole stamen is of the same colour 

 as the perianthium, but quite pale. The anther is of a pale yellowish-white, 

 and bursts in a transverse direction, separating, as it were, its two lobes, 

 and displaying the pollen in closely-packed cohering subcereaceous granular 



VOL. XVIII. 4 



