ON SOUTH-AMEEICAN APOCYNACE^. 109 



Skytanthus. 



A genus first proposed by Meyen in 1834, upon a Chile plant. A second species was 

 described by Prof. De CandoUe in 1844, as the type of his genus Neriandra—an excel- 

 lent analysis, under the latter name, being shown in Delessert's Icones. Its fruit and 

 seeds, however, were then unknown. Muller, in 1860, described a third species, and at 

 the same time figured the fruit and seeds of De CandoUe's species. The genus is dis- 

 tinguished by the long setaceous termination of its anthers — a feature also occurring in 

 Nerivm and Strophanthus, in the tribe Stipecomem : it is also notable for the total absence 

 of a disk. The fruit consists of 2 long slender follicles, containing many imbricate, oblong, 

 glabrous, compressed seeds winged at both extremities, without an apical coma, and 

 peltately attached by a central hilum to the inflected placenta. This structure places 

 the genus in the tribe Robbiece. 



1. Skytanthus acutus, Meyen, Reise i. 376; Eiidl. Gen. Suppl. p. 1396; A. DC. I. c. p. 488 : Skytalan- 



thus acutus, Schauer, Nov. Act. six. Suppl. i. 361 ; Gay, Chile, iv. 385 ; Walp. Rep. vi. 478 : 

 Neriandra angustifolia, A. DC. I. c. p. 422. In Chile ad Copiapo : non vidi. 



A low shrub, with a subprostrate or procumbent stem, and terete pubescent branches ; 

 leaves approximated, opposite or alternate, lanceolate, subcuneate at the base, obtuse, 

 with a recurved mucronate apex, entire, coriaceous, with revolute margins, midrib 

 immersed above, prominent beneath, opakely glaucous above, farinaceously puberulous 

 below, lJ-2 in. long, 2-3 lines broad, on petioles 2-4 lines long ; cymes axillary or ter- 

 minal, shorter than the leaves, on a trichotomous peduncle, few-flowered, with minute 

 bracts ; pedicels 3 lines long ; sepals acute, as in the pedicels hirtellous, IJ line long ; 

 tube of yellow corolla 7 lines long, villous within ; segments oval, of the same length, 

 puberulous outside ; anthers exserted, with long apical appendages ; 2 long, terete, com- 

 pressed subulate, falcate, velvety follicles, horn-shaped, giving to the plant the name of 

 " cuernecilla." 



2. Skytanthus hancorni^folius, not. : Neriandra hancorniarfoUa, A. DC. I. c. p. 432 ; Deless. Icon, v 



22, tab. 50; Miill. I. c. p. 63, tah. 50. fig. 1. In prov. Bahia, Jacobina, in montibus : non vidi. 



A shrubby species, with terete glabrous branches; leaves opposite or subalternate, 

 oblong, cuneate at the base, subacute towards the apex, nerves approximate, patently 

 parallel, slender, l|^-2 in. long, 7-9 lines broad, on very slender petioles 4-7 lines 

 long; panicles dichotomous in opposite axils, slender, 2-2^ in. long; pedicels 4 lines 

 long, slender, with a very minute basal bracteole; sepals acutely linear, imbricated, 

 1^ line long, without inner scales ; tube of corolla 3 lines long, narrowly cylindrical ; 

 segments 6 lines long, oblong, subreflexed, dextrorsely convolute; stamens seated in 

 the middle of the tube, with long, exserted apical appendages, spirally twisted together ; 

 disk none; 2 free ovaries; follicles 2, terete, puberulous, horizontally expanding, ex- 

 trorsely arching, 8 in. long, 2 lines broad ; seeds oblong, winged all round, 8 lines long, 

 2 lines broad, with a central hilum, peltately attached on each side of a solid torose 

 placenta. 



