ON SOtTTH-AMEEICAN APOCTNACE^. 125 



formes, utrinque longe subulato-acuminatsej glabrae, in quibus semina ipsa nidulantur 

 anguste lineari-ovoidea, apice acuminata, basi rotundiora, tota superficie dense sericeo- 

 pUosa, et longitrorsum pluricostulata, ad apieem radicularem sericeo-comosa ; coma 

 longius breviusve stipitata, cum spermadermio baud articulata." 



There is one important omission in these circumstantial details, no mention being 

 made of the manner of attachment of the seeds, whether suspended by a funicle, as in 

 Stipecoma, or peltately affixed by a central hilum, as in Bhahdadenia. We may fairly 

 incline to the latter view, because MiiUer thus describes the ovules in each ovary, 

 "amphitropa, in placenta ventrali lamelloso-bifida, pluriserialia." The above mode of 

 placentation is quite unexampled ; and we have no reason to doubt the correctness of 

 such minute details. Perhaps some degree of analogy may exist in the processes I have 

 described in the placenta of Stipecoma. 



Messrs. Bentham and Hooker, after an interval of sixteen years, are the only botanists 

 who have acknowledged this genus (Gen. ii. 727) ; but in their diagnosis they singularly 

 omit all mention of the extraordinary placentation of the fruit ; they merely describe 

 the seeds as having a plumose rostrum. 



1. Ukechites Karwinskii, Miill. Linn. xxx. 440. In Mexico : non 



2. Urechites Andrietjxii, Miill. I. c. p. 442. In Mexico : non 



3. Urechites suberecta, Miill. I. c. p. 444 : Echites suberecta, Linn., Jacq. Am. p. 32, tab. 26 (non 

 Sw. nee Andr.) ; A. DC. I. c. p. 453 ; Schlect. Linn. xxvi. 666 : Laubertia urechites {Echites sub- 

 erecta), Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. p. 415. In Jamaica et San Domingo : non vidi. 



A plant full of milky juice, 10 feet high when supported by other bushes, but in the 

 open fields scarcely more than 1 to 3 feet in height. It has slender branches, with axils 

 f- 1 in. apart ; opposite leaves ovate-elliptic, subacute at the base, summits rounded and 

 mucronate, glabrous, sometimes scabrous beneath, l|-2^ in. long, |-1 in. broad, on 

 petioles 1 line long ; panicle subterminal, 1^ in. long ; peduncle 8 lines long, branched, 

 few-flowered ; pedicels 6 Hnes long, pilose, with small lanceolate bracts ; sepals subu- 

 lately lanceolate, pilose outside, deciduous, 4 lines long, 2 lines broad, sparsely pilose 

 outside, with a few pointed basal scales; corolla IJ in. long; tube below narrowly 

 cylindrical, 1 line broad for the length of 4 lines, thence suddenly enlarging in a cylin- 

 drical form and 4 lines broad; segments glabrous, dolabriform, 8 lines long, 7 lines 

 broad ; stamens seated in the contraction of the tube in a pilose ring, the filaments being 

 short and glabrous ; anthers acute at the summit, shortly 2-lobed (not ai-istate) at the 

 base, lobes obtuse, incurved, and they are slightly scabrous on the back ; disk of 5 ovate 

 fleshy emarginated lobes, as long as the 2 free ovaries ; style slender, shortly bifid at the 

 base , clavuncle thickened, 5-grooved, glandular, with a basal membranaceous peltiform 

 appendage; 2 stigmata, short and terminal; 2 follicles, erect, slender, subincurved, 

 fuscous, 4 in. long, 2 lines thick. The peculiar placentation and structure of the seeds 

 are fully described above, as quoted from Muller. 



This species has been confounded by most botanists with the Echites suberecta, Swartz 

 and Andr. (non Japq.) ; Swartz (Observ. p. 104) makes the same mistake ; Hook, and 



