314 PENTANDP.IA MONOGYNIA, 1 Sy7idesmi$. 



two-thirds of an inch long; five-celled; ceZ/s smooth and polished within. 

 Putamen hard, bony, two lines thick. Seeds numerous, horizontal, 

 smooth and shining brown, ovate, slightly angular, about the size of 

 those of a raisin, their apex inserted by a very short funicle to the 

 inner angle of each cell. Integuments two ; the inner one pale men- 

 braupus. Embryo ovate, amygdaline ; cotyledons ovate, obtuse ; ra- 

 dicle cylindric, centripetal. 



Obs. The margins of the tender, brownish leaves are marked 

 with remote, glandular, minute, globular toothlets, which are easily 

 rubbed off, leaving no vestige whatever on the cartilagiuous margin. 

 It is only in this state that the leaves appear denticulate, with both 

 surfaces lucid and varnished as it were and slightly gland-dotted. As 

 they grow old all these appearances vanish entirely, and they become 

 perfectly entire, smooth and glaucous. 



It has been remarked by Poiret in Eucycl. Bot. Snpl. i. 698 

 that Lamarck';* Venana is thesame genus with Brexia of Petit-Thou- 

 ars -, but that they belong to two distinct species. 1 have no doubt of 

 ourevergeen tree being the very same as Lamarck's plant ; the only 

 difficulty of the sessile flowers, which he attributes to it, is remov- 

 ed by considering that he calls the inflorescence at one place a raceme % 

 and at another a head; while the flowers in his very indifferent figure 

 ^re represented as being pedicelled. — P. Thouars's plant differs in 

 having the young leaves spinous, and the old ones dentate. — N. W», 



SYNDESMIS, Wall 



Calyx spathaceous, split on one side, inferior. Petals four 

 or five, uniting at their base with the hlaments and forming a column 

 on which rests the oblique ovary. Style lateral. 



In the artificial system this new genus belongs to Tetrandria or 

 Pentandriamonogynia, the section with inferior four- or five-petalled 

 lowers. 



Its place in the natural arrangement is doubtful. 



