ON SOUTH-AMERICAN APOCTNACELE. 35 



arched ridge : raceme short, opposite at the nodes, on peduncles 4 lines long, its branches 

 of the same length, each hearing about 2 flowers on bracteolated pedicels 6 lines long ; 

 sepals lanceolate, deflected at the apex, 2 lines long, with a pluridentate scale inside at 

 the base ; tube of corolla narrowly cylindrical above, swollen near the base, 5 lines long, 

 dolabrif orm segments 3 lines long, simply contorted siaistrorsely in sestivation ; stamens 

 inserted in the basal portion of the tube ; 2 oblong pointed ovaries, without any apparent 

 disk ; style very short, clavuncle incrassated and deeply 5 -grooved ; 2 oblong subreniform 

 follicles, densely muricated, 1 in. long, 7 lines broad, each containing 16 seeds suspended 

 from the two sutural placentae by as many very thick orange-coloured fleshy funicles 

 9 lines long, nearly 2 lines thick ; seeds oval, compressed, convex and striated on the 

 dorsal side, longitudinally channelled to near the base on the ventral side, the hilum 

 placed on the hollow below the centre, where they are attached to the funicle ; they are 

 5 lines long, 3 lines broad ; albumen corneous, of the same shape, containing an embryo 

 of near its length, 3 lines long, with a slender terete superior radicle, as long as the 

 oval flat cotyledons. 



The granular elevations on the leaves are opake when dry ; but in the living state they 

 are pellucid. 



This plant, its inflorescence, its follicles, and the peculiar manner of the suspension of 

 its seeds are represented in Plate VI. a. 



5. pEscHiERA LiETA, nol). : Tabernmmontana lata, Mart, in Hb. PI. Bras. p. 104 ; A. DC. I. c. p. 364 

 (excl. syn.) ; Grardn. in Lond. Journ. Bot. i. 179; Miill. in Plor. Bras. fasc. 26, p. 79 ; Mart. op. cit. 

 fasc. 40, p. 183, tab. 54. fig. 1. In prov. Rio de Janeiro : v. v. et sice. hb. meo (n. 3014), inflore in 

 ascensu Monte Corcovado ; v. s. in hb. Mm. Brit, ex eod. loc. (Gardn. 75) . 



I found this species in flower, in September 1837, in company with Gardner ; it has 

 been found also at Itagoahy in the same province ; and in 1864 Dr. Peckholt sent to Von 

 Martins a specimen of the same in flower and in fruit, the structure of which is shown 

 in the plate above cited. This structure is quite similar to that I witnessed and figured 

 in P. fuchsicefolia ; but Martins has drawn the funicle, seed, and embryo in an inverted 

 position : he calls the funicle an arillus ; but this cannot be, as one end of it is attached 

 to the hilum, the other end to the placenta. 



This is a small tree, with pale, angulo-sulcated, lenticellated, stoutish, dichotomous 

 branchlets; the opposite leaves, somewhat heterophyllous in each node, are oblong 

 or lanceolate-oblong, acute at both ends, somewhat insBquilateral at the base, sub 

 membranaceous, entire or subrepand along the margin, palish green above, and sulcated 

 along the midrib, yellowish opake below, with reddish immersed nerves on both sides, as 

 in P. fuchsicefolia; they are 3^ and 4J in. long. If and 1 in. broad, on petioles 

 5 and 8 lines long, conjoined across the node by an arching ridge in the upper superior 

 axils. The subterminal panicle is 2^ in. long; the peduncle, 4 lines long, has three 

 branches 6 lines long, each bearing 6 or 8 flowers on bracteolated pedicels 3-4 lines 

 long ; sepals scarcely 1 line long, acute, each with an internal pluridentate scale at its 

 base ; tube of corolla cyKndrical, swollen at the base, 5 lines long, segments obliquely 

 oblong, 4 lines long ; stamens, as usual, inserted near the base ; 2 free oblong ovaries 



p2 



