THYMBL^AOE^. 107 



shrubs, with opposite leaves, without stipules, entire, penninerved, 

 and terminal flowers arranged in umbelliform cymes and accom- 

 panied by leaves modified as to form and consistence. 



Close to- Linostoma ranges Lophostoma, a be'autiful tree from the 

 region of the Amazon, which, with the same leaves and the same 

 floral organisation, presents short and hairy alternipetalous glands, 

 an ovary destitute of hypogynous disk, and a fruit with thin and dry 

 pericarp, around which persists the accrescent perianth, almost 

 vesiculate and thickened at the base to a sort of crenelated ring, 

 Synaptolepis, a sarmentous shrub of Zanzibar, has likewise opposite 

 leaves and pentamerous -and decandrous flowers; but the perianth 

 has the form of a horn still more narrow and elongate; and, above 

 the oppositipetalous stamens, is seen, instead of free scales, a short 

 collarette with entire or finely crenelate margin. The fruit is ovoid, 

 closely surrounded by an induvium formed by the base of the 

 perianth become fleshy and perforated at the summit ; the flowers 

 are axillary aUd solitary. In Stephanadenia, native shrubs of Mada- 

 gascar, the habit is altogether different, and the leaves are alternate, 

 elongate and pointed, with numerous fine pinnate nervures. The 

 flowers, either arranged along a long and slender spike to which they 

 are articulate, or gathered in a sort of umbel at its summit, are 

 constructed nearly as those of the preceding genera. But the perianth 

 has the form of a tube nearly cylindrical, and the throat bears, above 

 two distant verticils of sessile anthers, a thick glandular collarette, 

 spread out, and fringed with prominent papillae. The gynsecium, sup- 

 ported by a very short foot, is composed of an ovoid ovary extending 

 upwards in a terminal style with stigmatiferous extremity somewhat 

 enlarged. In Dicranolepis, on the contrary, the scales of the throat of 

 the limb attain so great a development, that they nearly equal the 

 five divisions of the calyx and resemble a corolla. A pair of these 

 large petaloid and coloured scales correspond to each interval 

 between two neighbouring sepals. The andrcecium is equally 

 diplostemonous, and the ovary is supported by a short foot sur- 

 rounded by a disk in the form of a membranous sheath and sur- 

 mounted by a style with a stigmatiferous olaviform and elongated 

 extremity. Dicranolepis consists of shrubs from tropical western 

 Africa with distichous unsymmetrical leaves and axillary sessile 

 flowers. Gnidia has also petaloid scales at the throat of the perianth, 

 but they are much less developed. They are simple or double in 



