138 BOTANY OF CONGO. 



A remarkable tree, called by the natives Musan^a, under 

 which name it is repeatedly mentioned in Professor Smith's 

 Journal, forms a genus intermediate between Coussapoa of 

 Aublet and Cecropia; agreeing with the latter in habit, and 

 differing from it chiefly in the structure and disposition of 

 its monandrous male flowers, and in the form of its female 

 amenta. 



In the inflorescence, and even in the structure of its 

 male flowers, Musanga approaches very nearly to Myriantlms 

 of M. de Beauvois,^ which it also resembles in habit. But 

 the fruit of Myrianthus, as given in the ' Flore d'Oware,' is 

 totally diff'erent, and, with relation to its male flowers, so 

 remarkable, that a knowledge of the female flowers is 

 wanting to fix our ideas both of the structure and affinities 

 of the genus. This desideratum the expedition to Congo 

 has not supplied, the male plant only of Myrianthus having 

 been observed by Professor Smith. 



454] In ArtocarpecB, to which Musanga belongs, and in Urti- 

 cecB strictly so called, the ovulum, which is always solitary, is 

 erect, while the embryo is inverted or pendulous. By these 

 characters, as well as by the separation of sexes, they are 

 readily distinguished from those genera of Chenopodece and 

 of monospermous Illecelrece^ in which the albumen is 

 either entirely wanting or bears but a small proportion to 

 the mass of the seed. And hence also Celtis and Mertensiaf 

 in both of which the ovulum is pendulous, are to be ex- 

 cluded from Urticese, where they have been lately referred 

 by M. Kunth. The same characters, of the erect ovulum 

 and inverted embryo, characterise Polygonese,* as I have 

 long since remarked, and exist in Piperace<s and even in 

 Co?iifercs, if my notions of that remarkable family be correct. 

 But from all those orders Urticese are easily distinguished 

 by other obvious and important differences in structure. 



PHYTOLACE/E. In describing ChenopodeEe, in the 



1 Flore d'Oimre 1, p. 16, tabb. 11 et 12. 



= Prodr. Flor. Nov. Boll. 1, pp. 405, 4-13, et p. 416. Paronychiearura sect, 

 ii. Jussieu in Mem. da Mus. d'Hist. Nat. 2, p. 388. 

 3 Nov. Gen. et Sp. PL Orb. Nov, 2,^. 30. 

 " Prodr. Flor. Nov. Eoll. 1, p. 419. 



