184 PENTANDKIA HONOGYNTA. Uropltyllum. 



ovate, hairy, supported by a small lanceolate proper bract/et, five- 

 celled, many-seeded ; ovula attached in a double series to an axile pla- 

 centa. — Style filiform, shorter than the stamina. Stigma fleshy, ca- 

 pitate, entire. — Berry dark purple, approaching to black, round, 

 as large as a small gooseberry, covered with short, capitate hairs, 

 obscurely ten-ribbed, crowned with the unaltered calyx ; five-celled. 

 Pulp, very soft.— Dissepiments thin, at length almost obliterated. 

 Seeds small, numerous, about eight in each cell, attached to the linear, 

 fleshy, axile placenta, by means of very short funicles ; oval, flatten- 

 ed, pale brown, smooth and polished, obtuse, somewhat acute at the 

 umbilical end. Integuments two, the outer one crustaceous ; the inner 

 one exceedingly thin and membranous. — Yerisperm conform to the 

 seed, fleshy. Embryo minute, cylindric, centripetal. 



Obs. My friend Dr. Govan remarks with great propriety that this 

 is a most beautiful shrub when in blossom, from the contrast of the 

 deep green of its stem and leaves with the purple colour of the 

 large bractes and the berries. — It comes nearest to Hamellia, from 

 which it differs in habit, in the unequal calyx, and the infundibuli- 

 form corolla, with gibbous base and obscurely unequal border; in 

 these respect as also by its connate bractes and persistent gemmace- 

 OU3 scales it approaches to Caprifolium. 



VROPHYLLUM. Wall. 



Calyx sub-quinquefid. Corolla infundibuliform, five-parted, with 

 villous throat. Stigma five-lobed. Berry underneath, globular, 

 five-celled, many-seeded. — Jack y s Mss. 



The station of this genus, in the artificial as well as the natural 

 system is the same as that of the preceding. Its habit is that of 

 middling sized, erect shrub, with opposite, short-petioled leaves, 

 remarkable on account of their extremely long and slender acumen, 

 (whence the generic name ;) with interpetiolary stipules, and small 

 axillary crowded flowers. It consists of two species which were 

 discovered on the Island of Penang in 1819 by Mr. W. Jack, who 



