or obscure species of Plants. 547 



had each cell marked along the middle with a longitudinal furrow, 

 and contained pollen ; hence I infer that they are fertile, and open 

 by slits (not by valves,) but I have seen none after dehiscence, and 

 as at the same time they bear the closest resemblance to the stami- 

 nodia of many genera of Laurineae, so it is not improbable that they 

 may be sterile, and that the fertile ones (on a different plant) do 

 open by valves. If this view were to be adopted, Hortonia would 

 be more allied to Atherospermeae, particularly to Laurelia (the fila- 

 ments of which are likewise furnished with a couple of glands at 

 their base, as in Laurineae,) but in all the Atherospermese the ovule 

 is described as erect, not pendulous, and the style is long, persistent, 

 and plumose. At present, Hortonia ought perhaps to be consider- 

 ed as a connecting link between Monimiaceae and Atherospermeae, 

 agreeing with, but at the same time differing from both, in several of 

 their peculiar characters. The flower buds, if they may be so call- 

 ed, resemble those of a double flowering myrtle, and are rery fre- 

 quently injured and internally deformed from having been attacked 

 by the larvae of insects. 



In Lindley's Introduction to the Natural System, all the species of 

 Monimiaceae are said to be natives of America ; this is surely a mere 

 inadvertency ; a very few only are found in the New World. 



Ackocarpus, Wight MSS. (Leguminosae.) 



Calyx subcoriaceus, ebracteolatus, campanulatus, 5-fidus, laciniis 

 erectis, superioribus et inferiori caeteris paullo majoribus. Torus 

 tubum tegens. Petala oblonga, subcoriacea, subaequalia, sessilia, 

 diu persistentia, in ore calycis inserta ac ejus lobis alterna et paullo 

 longiora ; aestivatio subimbricata, carinalis. Stamina 5, ibidem in- 

 serta, petalis alternantia : filamenta e basi lata subulata, petala 2- 

 3— plo superantia, libera, recta : aniherce oscillatoriae. Ovarium longe 

 stipitatum, stipite libero, oblongo-lineare, falcatum, stylo brevi in- 

 curvo acuto mucronatum, multi (sub-15,) ovulatum. Fructus. . . 



Arbor magna, speciosa, glab?'a. Folia alterna, imparipinnata, de- 

 cidua ; petiolus 4-6 poll, longus, teres : foliola 3-4-juga, lanceolala, 

 acuminata, basi paullo incequalia, 3— poll, longa, integerrima subtus 

 pallida, petiolulo semipollicari. Flores ante foliorum evolutionem ex- 

 pansi majusculi, coccinei, racemosi ; racemis spiciformibus densifo- 

 ris 6-8 poll, longis ; pedicellis lineam vel sesquilineam longis recurvis* 

 Stamina fere pollicem longa. 



1. A.fraxinifolius, Am. in Wight Cat. n. 2468. 



Hab. Ad Courtallum, florens fere absque foliis mense Februario ; 

 Wight. 



VOL. II. NO. 12. O O 



