192 ON SOTJTH-AMEEIGAN APOCTIS'ACE^. 



was followed by other botanists, who continued to heap up in this genus a great number 

 of plants bearing little relation to the true type, thus creating great confusion up to the 

 present time. 



The order Apocynece was not proposed until 1789, and then vaguely, as Jussieu in- 

 cluded in it all the Asclepiadece, Loganiacece, and other groups of plants. It was not 

 till 1811 that the celebrated E-ob. Brown remedied > this confusion by separating and 

 defining the Apocynece and the Asclepiadeee as distinct families, in the former of which 

 the genus lEchites is enumerated in terms differing little from those of Jacquin. The 

 genus, still ill-defined, continued to increase in the number of species, when, in 1844, 

 Prof. De Candolle enumerated 177 species, a number soon after considerably increased 

 by Miiller, all proposed without any relation to the structural peculiarities of the original 

 type. 



In this memoir I have endeavoured to separate the legitimate species, amounting to 

 about 40, from the mass of above 200 of those recorded by authors. The plants of true 

 Echites may be distinguished not only by the floral characters, but by having several 

 pointed glands, arranged transversely across the nodes in the usual place of stipules, and 

 in having similar glands at the base of the midrib of the leaves at their junction with 

 the petioles. The following is an amended diagnosis of the genus. 



Echites, P. Browne, Jam. p. 18 ; Jacq. Amer. p. 29 ; Linn. Sp. PL (1764) in parte ; R. Brown, Mem. 

 Wern. See. i. p. 396. Sepala 5, parva, acuta, intus singulatim squama profunde plurilacinulata 

 munita ; corolla tubularis ; tubus longiusculus, imo breviter et anguste cylindricus, supra latior, sub- 

 quinquangularis, bine ssepe spiraliter tortus, fauce subconstrictus ; segmenta 5, truncatim dolabri- 

 formia, oblonga vel tubo breviora, dextrorsum convoluta. Stamina ad constrictionem tubi inserta ; 

 filamenta tenuia, subbrevia ; antheree rigide lineares, acuminatse, imo in furcas 2 breves acutas 

 fissse. Discus e lobis 5 obtuse linearibus, carnosulus j ovaria 3 ilium subsequantia ; stylus tenuis ; 

 clavuncula incrassata, oblonga ; stigmata 2, parva, terminalia. Folliculi 2, aut erecti vel horizon- 

 taliter divaricati, anguste teretes, sutura ventrali dehiscentes. Semina plurima, lineari-oblonga, com- 

 pressa, rugulosa, funiculo brevissimo raphte continuo suspensa, coma sericeo-pilosa paullo longiore 

 coronata. 



Frutices scandentes America intertropicce ; ramuli ad nodos glandulis acutis plurimis praditi ; folia 

 opposita, petiolata, ovata aut oblonga, ad costam petiolum versus glandulis carnosulis munita ; inflore- 

 scentia axillaris, sape bifidp, ; flores plurimi, pulchri, pedicellati, umbellatim aut congestim aggregati ; 

 ■pedicelli brevissime bracteolati. 



1. Echites ovata (scandens foliis ovatis), P. Browne, Hist. Jam. p. 182 : Apocynum folio rotunda, 

 Sloane, Jam. 1207, tab. 131. fig. 2, Cat. Jam. p. 89 : Apocynum scandens, Catesb. Carol, i. p. 58, 

 tab. 58. In Antillis : v. s. in herb. Mus. Brit. Jamaica (Shakespear, Houston). 



The original type of the genus, which is fully described by Dr. Browne, and well 

 figured by Sloane and Catesby. It grows on the dry (not moist) parts of the savannas 

 of Jamaica ; its scandent flexuose branches have axils 1^ in. apart ; leaves ovate, 

 rounded at the base, subacute at the apex, rigidly membranaceous, dark green above, 

 paler and opake beneath, with about 11 pairs of subdivergent, parallel, prominent nerves 

 arcuately conjoined, 2-2J in. long, lj-2j in. broad, on channelled petioles 3-6 lines long; 

 ra,ceme lateral, short, on a deflexed peduncle 4-6 lines long, bearing 2-5 aggregated 



