12 ON SOUTH- AMERICAN APOCTNACELE. 



Hancoenia. 



The description of the fruit and seeds of this genus given, in a few words, by Endlicher, 

 DeCandolle, and Miiller is copied from that of Gomez ; but it is incomplete. Aware of 

 this, I lately procured from Pernambuco several fruits preserved in spirit ; and I now 

 give the results of their examination. The globular epicarp is a thin coriaceous skin, 

 covering a paler yellowish fleshy mass, which exudes a milky juice, is sweet and of 

 a pleasant flavour : it contains several white seeds somewhat sparsely imbedded in it, 

 which are oval, compressed, consisting only of an albumen and enclosed embryo, the 

 testa not having been noticed by any previous observer ; this, however, exists, appearing 

 like a smooth hollow cyst, in which the albuminous body reposes ; this albumen shows 

 on the ventral side, a little below the summit, a hollow with a mamillary point which 

 has been mistaken for the hilum ; but it is only the end of the radicle, which almost pro- 

 trudes. The testa or cyst is of an orange colour, is covered externally with numerous 

 papillose scales, between which the fleshy matter is insinuated, and thus holds it so fast 

 that it is impossible to extricate it. Intermixed with the fertile seeds we find in the soft 

 mass many sterile ones, where the nature of the testa is clearly seen ; these are free from 

 the mass, or at least easily separated. This is an empty sac, pompressed, showing the true 

 hilum in the centre of one face, all the rest of the surface being papillose as above- 

 mentioned. 



Miiller has united the different species as mere varieties of a single one ; but I make out 

 three distinct species : — 1. Hancornia speciosa, Gomez ; well figured by Miiller in his 

 pi. viii. fig. 3 ; it is the Ribeira sorbilis of Arruda (in Cent. PI. Pernam.), and flourishes 

 in the sertaos or flat arid plains in the province of Pernambuco : its leaves are smaller, 

 oblong, narrowing to the summit, quite glabrous, on a slender petiole ^ their length : the 

 peduncle of the inflorescence is 3 lines long, bears 2 or 3 flowers on pedicels 6 lines long, 

 each flower 1^ in. long. 2. H. pubescbns, Nees & Mart., is found on the high tablelands 

 in the province of Minas Geraes, is arborescent, with leaves covered beneath with fine 

 ferruginous tomentum, which in my specimen (Claussen, 222) are 2-2 1 in. long, 10-12 

 lines broad, more gradually acute at both extremities than in the preceding species, and 

 on a pubescent petiole 3 lines long ; they differ especially in having few, remote, ascend- 

 ing nerves : its corymbose flowers are larger, with a shorter tube, and are more numerous. 

 3. H. Gaedneri is a tree about 12 feet high, from the province of Goyaz, has much 

 larger and broader leaves, rounded towards the summit, where they are suddenly 

 narrowed into a short linear acumen, with closely parallel patent nerves, quite glabrous, 

 2-3 in. long, 1^1| in. broad, on petioles 1-1^ line long ; the terminal corymb has a 

 very short peduncle bearing 6 or 8 erect flowers on pedicels 2 lines long ; the flowers are 

 2 in. long, including the linear segments (9 lines) ; the fruit is more than double the size 

 of that of the two preceding species, and is equal in size to a large peach. The differences 

 are sufficiently great to constitute three valid species. 



The typical species has long been cultivated near Pernambuco, and was first described 

 by Gomez. The milky juice yielded by all of them, as well as by the fruits known by 



