CELASTRACEyE. 



289 



Padus, and are destitute, as already remarked, of the ten capillary 

 bodies mentioned by Forster as interposed in pairs between the 

 stamens. — That an erroneous character has been ascribed to the 

 arillus of Catha by Endlicher has already been noticed by Webb, who, 

 in his elaborate Phytographia Canariensis, has well illustrated Catha 

 cassinoides. 



Plate 23.— Catha Vitiensis: in flower and fruit. Fig. 1. A 

 sterile? flower. 2. Vertical section of the same. 3. A petal. 4. A 

 stamen. 5. Vertical section of a fertile flower. 6. Transverse section 

 of the ovary. 7. A dehiscent capsule. 8. A seed, with its arillus. 

 9. Transverse section of the seed. 10. Vertical section of the seed 

 and its short arillus. — All the details magnified. 



3. CELASTRUS, Linn. 



1. Celastrus Richii, Sp. Nov. 



C. inermis, glaberrima; follis oblongis utrinque subacutis crenidatis 

 supra lucid is brevissime petiolatis ; racemo terminali paucifloro. 



Hab. Vanua-levu, Feejee Islands. 



The specimens are in fruit only: but the terminal raceme and the 

 complete arillus, as well as the habit, show the plant to be a genuine 

 Celastrus. It bears much resemblance to the East Indian C panicur 

 latus; but the feic-flowered racemes, the branchlets, &c, are perfectly 

 glabrous, and the leaves are oblong or elliptical, more or less acute at 

 both ends, or only slightly acuminate, shining above, rather indistinctly 

 crenate, and on very short petioles (one or two lines in length). The 

 stems would appear to be sarmentose; the slender branchlets are 

 thickly warty-dotted; the leaves of a chartaceous texture, 2 or 3 

 inches long. Capsule globose, obscurely three-lobed, 5 lines in dia- 

 meter, three-celled, three-valved, stipate at the base by the persistent 

 calyx (the lobes of which apparently are not ciliate) ; the cells two- 

 seeded. Arillus thin and fleshy in the dried plant, enclosing the seed, 

 apparently orange-coloured ; the seed purple. 



