GUTTIFER.E. 215 



Calyx persistent. Petals tardily deciduous. Ovary eight-celled, eight- 

 lobed, crowned with as many radiated stigmas: these are distinct, 

 tongue-shaped, large, strongly reflexed, and of a fleshy texture : the 

 cells, in specimens which are considerably enlarged after flowering, 

 are all destitute of ovules, as was the case in St. Hilaire's specimens. 

 The flowers are undoubtedly polygamous. We have, however, a ripe 

 pod, from which the character may be completed, as to the fruit 

 and seeds. Capsule eight-celled, globose-ovoid, an inch in length, 

 septicidally eighUvalved; the valves margined by thin dissepiments, 

 separating from the thickened axis which bears the 8 persistent and 

 projecting -placentae, cartilaginous (the exocarp fleshy when fresh?), 

 each tipped on the back, just below the summit, with the vestiges of 

 the reflexed stigma. Seeds 3 or 4 in each cell, in a single series, 

 enclosed in pulpy matter, cylindrical-oblong, slightly arcuate, 3 lines 

 in length ; the testa chartaceous, loose ; the inner integument mem- 

 branaceous, lineate with resinous vittse, conformed to the oblong-linear 

 nucleus, which consists of an embryo, the parts of which are not 

 readily distinguishable. 



The genus was founded on a specimen of the present plant, with 

 flowers which, although apparently hermaphrodite and perfect, were 

 found to have the cells of the ovary destitute of ovules. The fruit is 

 only now made known. Meanwhile a second species, gathered by 

 Splitgerber and Focke, in Surinam, and briefly indicated by the former, 

 under the name of Arrudea purpurea, has been fully described by 

 Miquel, in Linnsea, 18, p. 229-232, who has recast the character of 

 the genus from the new materials. A. purpurea is described as 

 having a pentamerous pistil (with 5 stigmas and 5 cells to the ovary), 

 and numerous seeds, occupying several series in each cell of the fleshy 

 five-valved capsule. Hence Prof. Miquel inclines to doubt whether 

 A. clusioides has truly an octomerous ovary, with few-ovuled cells 

 (the latter character having been inserted on the strength of a MS. 

 note made by St. Hilaire in Brazil). I am enabled to confirm both 

 these points. I have not seen the ovules, however ; but they can 

 hardly be numerous, since there are only three, or at most four, seeds 

 in each cell of the single pod which the present collection affords. 

 The calyx in A. purpurea is said to be deciduous: in A. clusioides it 

 persists at the base of the capsule; or at least the exterior scaly 

 envelopes are persistent. 



