TERNSTRGEMIACEiE. 207 



1. Drattonia rubicunda, Sp. Nov. (Tab. 15.) 



Hab. Banks of shaded mountain streams, Ovolau, Feejee Islands. 



Shrub or small tree 10 to 20 feet high ; the branchlets, petioles, 

 veins of the leaves, &c, thickly beset with ferrugineous chaffy scurf 

 when young, otherwise glabrous. Leaves alternate, crowded towards 

 the ends of the branches, chartaceous in texture, oblong, more or less 

 acute at both ends, 4 to 7 inches long, and 1J to 2i inches wide, 

 acutely serrulate, pinnately veined from a strong midrib, and under- 

 neath reticulated between the veins ; the areolae of the veinlets oblong 

 and transverse. Petioles an inch or more in length. Leaf-buds 

 naked : vernation of the leaves conduplicate. Peduncles axillary, as 

 long as the petioles, or shorter, bearing a several-flowered corymb-like 

 cyme. Pedicels minutely bibracteolate about the middle, half an 

 inch long. Calyx not bracteolate, deeply five-parted, its very base 

 adnate to the base of the ovary, otherwise free, persistent : the sepals 

 somewhat chartaceous, unequal (the two exterior smaller), roundish- 

 ovate, concave, quincuncially imbricated in aestivation. Petals 5, 

 obovate, entire, longer than the sepals, 3 or 4 lines in length, " red," 

 distinct, subperigynous, convolute, or oftener convolute-imbricated 

 (one petal being exterior as in Saurauja) in aestivation, tardily deci- 

 duous. Stamens numerous (40 or more), inserted with the petals, but 

 not adnate to them, scarcely half the length of the corolla : filaments 

 subulate, their dilated bases monadelphous into a short ring : anthers 

 oblong, tivo-celled, fixed by their back near the base to the apex of the 

 filament, therefore incumbent, destitute of a manifest connective ; the 

 cells slightly recurved, separate at the apex, opening from the apex 

 downward by a long introrse chink, extending quite to the middle of 

 the cell. Pollen-grains simple, oval. There is no manifest disk. 

 Ovary three-celled (rarely 4-5-celled), globular. Style single, columnar, 

 longer than the stamens, terminated by a subcapitate three-lobed 

 stigma. Placentae 3, thickened and fleshy, projecting from the axis 

 into the cavity of the cells; the surface thickly covered by the nume- 

 rous anatropous ovules. Capsule globose, invested by the persistent 

 calyx, about 3 lines in diameter, glabrous, reddish, three-celled (rarely 

 4-5-celled), with their dissepiments rather fleshy in texture and 



