anonace^:. 29 



tical or oblong, obtuse or rounded at the base, the apex usually with 

 a short acumination, feather-veined (the principal veins slender) 

 and minutely reticulated, from 5 to 9 inches long, and 2 or 3 

 wide ; the midrib minutely verrucose-roughened underneath. Petioles 

 half an inch long. Peduncles solitary, axillary or opposite the leaves, 

 naked, an inch or more in length, one-flowered. Calyx small, 

 expanded, slightly three-lobed, persistent. Corolla of 6 petals in two 

 distinct series, thick and coriaceous in the dried specimen, minutely 

 silky-pubescent, deciduous; the three exterior spreading, ovate, sub- 

 acuminate, two-thirds of an inch in length ; the three inner similar in 

 shape but only half the size, more tardily opening, not spreading. 

 Stamens very numerous, crowded, in many ranks, occupying the thick- 

 ened annular margin of the saucer-shaped torus: filaments very short; 

 the large connective tipped with the truncate thickened apex which 

 is common in this family : anther-cells linear, extrorse, opening longi- 

 tudinally. Pistils numerous (about 20), inserted on the concave- 

 depressed centre of the dilated torus : ovaries minutely hairy, linear- 

 oblong, angled, about the length of the stamens, abruptly contracted 

 into a linear, thickish style, which is as long as the ovary itself, and 

 canaliculate and stigmatose for nearly the whole length of its internal 

 face. Ovules 2, inserted close together, but one above the other, on the 

 ventral suture, very near the base of the cell, obcompressed, ascending. 

 Fruit of few (in the specimen 3) ripened carpels from one flower: 

 these are coriaceous, but were probably fleshy in the living plant, 

 obovate, obtuse, contracted at the base into a short and thick stipe, and 

 indehiscent, at least, showing no indications of dehiscence : they are an 

 inch and a half long and an inch in thickness, and have rather thin 

 walls. Seed solitary, erect, fully an inch long and almost as wide, as 

 long and as broad as the cell, oval or obovate in outline, almost flat 

 on one face, the other angled in the middle, so that the transverse 

 section is triangular, the margins of the smooth, coriaceo-crustaceous 

 (chestnut-coloured) testa produced all round into a sharp, salient, icing- 

 like edge, which is notched on one side at the base : the hilum small, 

 next the base on the angled face. Albumen very oily, ruminated in 

 the manner of the family. Embryo minute, with oblong cotyledons 

 and a slender radicle. 



The name Bichea being preoccupied, I trust I may be permitted 

 somewhat to modify and prolong it, in order to dedicate this well- 



