238 ON SOUTH-AMEEICAN APOCTNACE^. 



corolla white, 7-9 lines long; sepals glabrous, one third the length of the pedicels, 

 acutely ovate ; tube of corolla 3-4 times as long as the sepals ; segments roundly obovate, 

 as long as the tube ; fructiferous pedicels opposite, beariug 2 erect reddish follicles densely 

 hispid at each extremity with hooked rigid hairs, glabrous in the middle, teretely linear, 

 3 in. long, 2 lines thick ; the seeds comose. 



De CandoUe considers, on the authority of Poiret, that E. asperugmis, Sw., is a mere 

 variety of this very distinct species ; but this seems inadmissible. Bentham and Hooker 

 (Gen. ii. p. 708) repeat the same inference. 



6. Anechites uevolutAj nob. : Echites revoluta, A. DC. I. c. p. 457 ; Echites circinalis (in parte), Miill. 

 (non Sw.) in Flor. Bras. xxvi. p. 154. In Brasilia, prov. Cuyaba : non vidi. 



A plant very distinct from that of Swartz : it has very slender seandent stems ; its 

 leaves are oblong, acute, 2-3 in. long, |— 1 in. broad, plicately folded at the base, on 

 petioles 3 lines long ; raceme axillary, on a bare peduncle 1 in. long, bearing above 

 8-10 flowers ; sepals linear-lanceolate, with an inner multidentate scale ; tube of corolla 

 cylindrical, 7 lines long ; segments longer than the tube ; stamens inserted in the middle 

 of the tube, above its broad pilose liniug ; disk of 5 lobes, connate at the base, longer 

 - than the ovaries. 



EXOTHOSTEMON. 



A genus, proposed by G. Don for a group of Orinoco and Columbian plants, described 

 by Kunth under a distinct section of Echites. In habit and in their peculiar inflorescence 

 they approach Laseguea, but differ from it in their corolla, with a more slender tube, 

 pilose in the mouth, and in their much broader segments, more especially in their wholly 

 exserted stamens, a peculiarity which gave rise to the generic name. They are slender 

 seandent plants, with a fruit of 2 terete torulose follicles, with comose seeds. Messrs. 

 Bentham and Hooker are undoubtedly wrong in amalgamating Exothostemon with JPres- 

 tonia (Gen. ii. p. 709), the two genera being widely distinct : in the one the inflorescence 

 consists of a densely ramified panicle, often capitate, in the other a long narrow raceme 

 with adpressed bracts ; in the one the mouth of the corolla-tube is furnished with scales 

 and a fleshy annular ring, which are wanting in the other ; one has a fruit of 2 free 

 terete follicles, the other has a long cylindrical 2-celled capsule with septicidal dehiscence ; 

 the coma of the seeds is simple in the one, double in the other. 



' ExoTHOsTEMON, G. Don: Echites (an nov. genus?), H. B. K., A. DC. : Prestonia (in parte), Benth. & 

 Hook. Char, reformatus. Sepala 5, ovata, acuminata, erecta, submembranacea, colorata, reticulato- 

 veuosa, imo squamula intus munita. Corolla bypocrateriformis ; tubus anguste cylindricus, ad faucem 

 brevissime dilatatus, ubi annulo piloso donatus ; segmenta dolabriformia, angulo uno acuminata, 

 altero late rotundata. Stamina annulo piloso inserta; filamenta brevia; antherce lineares, iu conum 

 cohserentes, ssepius omniuo exsertae, acuminatse, imo breviter emarginato-bilobse. Discus suburceo- 

 latus, in lobos 5 carnosos fere ad basin fissus. Ovaria 2, disco circumdata. Stylus simplex ; clavun- 

 cula incrassata, 5-angulata, imo membrana lacerata munita, ad antheras agglutinata; stigmata 2, 

 parva, terminalia. Folliculi 2, teretes, ssepe torulosi, sutura ventrali dehiscentes, margine placentiferi ; 

 placenta linearis, demum soluta ; semina plurima, oblonga, dorso convexa, margine incurva, ventre 



