ON SOTJTH-AMEEICAN APOCTNACELaE. 95 



3-5 lines long, shortly branched, and bearing a capitate cluster of very small, rufously 

 pruinose flowers, 2 lines long, on pedicels J line long, with small bracteoles ; sepals sub- 

 acute, membranaceous, 1 line long; corolla subpuberulous outside; tube 1 line long; 

 segments lanceolate, subreflexed, glabrous inside, dextrorsely convolute in aestivation, 

 1 line long ; disk of 5 smooth, fleshy lobes ; follicles 2 (one sometimes abortive), linear, 

 stoutish, 2-3 in. long, containing many oblong flat seeds with narrow winged margins, 

 without any coma. 



3. Thyrsanthus Benthamiana, nob. : Forsteronia Benthamiana, Miill. I. c. p. 106. In Brasilia : v. s. 



in herb, meo et alior. San Carlos, Rio Negro (Spruce 3481). 



A species much resembling the two preceding. Its branches are glabrous, striolate, 

 verrucously lenticellate, with axils l;|-lf in. apart; leaves lanceolate oblong, roundish 

 or subacute at the base, with a very narrow acute acumen, margins revolute, very 

 glabrous, with arcuate, fine, semi-immersed nerves, the midrib at its junction with the 

 petiole showing a yellow granular gland, sometimes split into 2 or more distinct 

 glandules, as in the typical species, ferruginously opake beneath, with a prominent 

 fuscous midrib, prominuleut fine nerves and reticulated veins, 4i-6j in. long, If-l^ in. 

 broad, on channelled petioles 2-3 lines long; panicles subterminal and axillary, 

 rufescently puberulous, 2J-3 in. long, on a rather slender peduncle bare for IJ in., 

 bearing above several branchlets J in. long, bare at the base for half their length, and 

 bifldly divided, with 3-4 flowers oii pedicels 1 line long, and minutely bracteolated ; 

 sepals acute, f line long ; corolla also pruinosely tomentellous, 2-2^ lines long, with a 

 very short tube ; segments lanceolate, with dextrorse convolution. 



4. Thyrsanthus spicatus, nob. : Forsteronia spicata, Meyer, Esseq. p. 135 ; A. DC. I. c. p. 437 : Echite» 



spicata, Jacq. Am. p. 34, tab. 29 : Parsonsia spicata, R. Br. Mem. Wern. Soc. i. p. 65. In Carta- 

 gena (Jacq.) : v. s. in herb. Mus. Brit. Campeche (Houston) . 

 The plant of Houston agrees well with the drawing of Jacquin, who describes it as a 

 lofty climber, the main stem being 1 in. thick, with alternate remote branches whose 

 axils are nearly 2 in. apart. It exudes a copious milky juice. The leaves are opposite, 

 very spreading, elliptic oblong, roundish at the base, and recurved upon the petiole, 

 with a short suddenly acute reflexed acumen, rigidly chartaceous, with revolute margins, 

 green above, corrugulate, with a flattened midrib and about 10 pairs of divaricate 

 arching nerves, sulcate along them and the immersed reticulated veins, with a large 

 granulated gland at the base of the midrib, pale, ferruginous, and opake beneath, midrib 

 and nerves flattened, reddish, 4i-5| in. long, 2^-2^ in. broad, on channelled petioles 

 3 lines long ; panicles opposite, densely thyrsoid, 1-lJ in. long, ^ in. broad, on short 

 peduncles, bearing very numerous, crowded, subsessile flowers, 2 lines long; sepals 

 ovate, rigid, subimbricated ; corolla white, with a very short tube, villous inside; 

 segments acutely oblong, equilateral, with reflexed margins, twice the length of the 

 tube ; anthers exserted, conniving in a cone ; disk of 5 lobes, as long as the 2 villous 

 ovaries. 



