18 ON SOUTH-AMEEICAJSr APOCTNACE^. 



plant being stiU extant in the herbarium of the British Museum. It is curious that, in the 

 interval of 110 years, this rare plant has not again been met with, although that neigh- 

 bourhood has been since industriously searched by miany scores of collectors. The genus 

 is near Couma, differing in the singular form of its corolla (which suggested its generic 

 name), in the shape of its stamens, the structure of its disk, and other features, as the 

 following diagnosis will show. 



Ceratites, Soland. — Char, emend. : Sqiala 5, acute oblonga, membranacea, subreflexa. Corolla tubulosa, 

 flavide tomentosa, tubo cylindrico, calyce triplo longiore, supra medium constricto, et hinc intus 

 infra piloso, limbi segmentis 5 obtuse lanceolatis, tubo sequilongis, subdextrorsum contortis, extus 

 cum appendicibus subulatis sub apicem cornutis tomentosis, intus concavis et glabris. Stamina b, 

 inclusa, ad constrictionem tubi inserta : filamenta subbrevia, tenuia, extus pilosula ; antherm liberae, 

 erectae, lineares, 2-lobBe, sub medium divaricatim fissse, in sinu affixse, lobis utrinque obtusis, longi- 

 tudinaliter dehiscentibus. Discus breviter tubulosus, liber, margine integro minutq glauduloso. 

 Ovaria 2, subglobosa, pUosa, disco sequilonga; stylus glaber, filif or mis, stamina attingens, apice 

 fusiformi-incrassatus ; stigmata 2, parva, acuta, pilosa, subdivaricata. Fructus ignotus. Frutex 

 Brasiliana ; folia opposita, elliptica, petiolata ; paniculse axillares folio dimidio breviores, bis trichotomy, 

 floribus circ. 9 in dichotomiis, fere sessilibus, dense tomentosa. 



1. Ceratites amcena, Soland. MS. in sched. 1083; in Prim. Fl. Bras. p. 68, tab. pict. 26: ramulis 

 teretibus cinereo-opacis, axillis nodulosis : foliis oppositis, elliptico-oblongis, imo acutis, apice sensim 

 subacutis calloso-mucronatis, chartaceis, marginibus integris subrevolutis, supra pallide et laete 

 viridibus, subnitidis, nervis tenuissimis vix prominulis, subtus flavide opacis, brevissime puberulis, 

 costa nervisque prominulis ; petiolo tenui, semitereti, glabro, limbo 20p]o breviore : paniculis 

 axillaribus, flavide puberulis, circa 9-floris ; pedunculo 3-ramoso, ramis dichotome divaricatis, cum 

 flore fere sessili in dichotomiis; pediceUis brevissimis; sepalis lanceolatis, membranaceis, reflexis, 

 puberulis ; corolla flavide tomentosa ; caet. ut in char, gener. In Brasilia : v. s. in hb. Mm. Brit. 

 Rio de Janeiro (Solander, anno 1768). 



I have stated that this genus approaches Gouma in structure : the latter is described 

 and figured by MiiUer, who alleges that it has no disk ; but I have found in C. dulcis and 

 C. oblongifolia a decided disk, concealing 2 pUose ovaries as in Ceratites. In the present 

 species the branchlets are 1 line thick, the axils being |-1 in. apart; the leaves are 

 3j-3J iu. long, Ij-lf in. broad, on petioles 1^2 lines long ; the peduncle is 6 lines long, 

 the 3 branches 4 lines long, each dichotomously divided, with a flower in each dichotomy, 

 on pedicels f line long ; sepals 1 line long ; tube of corolla 4 lines long, segments 3 lines 

 long, with cornute appendages 2 lines long, placed below the apex : stamens seated in 

 the contraction of the tube; filaments slender, IJ line long; anthers 1 line long: style 

 4^ lines long. 



A figure of this species, with an analysis of its peculiar floral -structure, is exhibited in 

 Plate I. c. 



Pomphidba. 



This genus * is proposed for a Jamaica plant collected by Swartz, and hitherto un- 

 described. Its floral structure, in many points, approaches that of Ambellania. It has 



* So named froni voiu^bi (cutis tumide vesieata) and ISea (fades). 



