FLACOURTIACE^. 77 



at the base of the advanced or ripened pistil. Fruit baccate, oblong- 

 ovoid, 3 or 4 lines long, a little narrowed at the base, the apex pointed 

 with an extremely short style, which is tipped with a depressed or 

 somewhat peltate two-lobed persistent stigma, one-celled, with 2 

 parietal placentse. The ovules are from 2 to 4 on the upper part of 

 each placentse, oval, pendulous, anatropous. Seeds 4 to 6, or by 

 abortion 2, one pendulous from the upper portion of each placenta, 

 on a thickish funiculus, pretty large, so that the two fill the cell, 

 obovate; the testa smooth and even, marked with a narrow raphe 

 and an apical chalaza. Embryo as long as the fleshy albumen, 

 straight: radicle cylindrical, superior: cotyledons foliaceous, cordate- 

 oval. 



According to Forster, the fragrant wood of this tree is steeped in 

 cocoa-nut oil, which, thus scented, is used by the Tahitians to anoint 

 their hair. I find no allusion to this custom as still existing, how- 

 ever, in the Narrative of the Expedition, or in Dr. Pickering's volume ; 

 further than that, in the former, it is said that "this oil is often 

 scented with aromatic herbs, to be employed by the natives in anoint- 

 ing the hair and body." Except our imperfect specimens, the plant 

 does not appear to have been collected by any botanist since Cook's 

 voyage; but Guillemin has printed Forster's manuscript description 

 of the plant, and Mr. Bennett has recently given, from Forster's 

 specimen and drawing preserved in the Banksian herbarium, an 

 amended generic character. The structure of the seed and embryo, 

 however, are not stated ; and on all accounts it is desirable to figure 

 the plant, even from the incomplete materials which our collection 

 affords. 



Plate 4, A. — Xylosma suaveolens. Fig. 1. A branchlet of the 

 staminate plant, in flower. 2. Exterior, and 3, interior view of a 

 stamen, magnified. 4. Pistillate plant, in fruit. 5. Calyx and the 

 disk. 6. A longitudinal, and 7, a transverse section of the fruit, 

 with the persistent calyx. 9. A seed. 10. A longitudinal, and 11, 

 a transverse section of the seed. — The details are all variously mag- 

 nified. 



20 



