348 PHANEROGAMIA. 



Plate 38. — Pelea volcanica : branches, of the natural size, in 

 flower and in fruit. Fig. 1. Diagram of the flower. 2. Expanded 

 hermaphrodite flower. 3. Vertical section of the same. 4. A stamen. 

 5. Fructified ovary, with the disk, pedicel, and bractlets. 6. Vertical 

 section of the seed through the hilum. — The details variously mag- 

 nified. 



*■ * Species Samoensis, dubia. 



7. Pelea? lucida, Sp. Nov. (Tab. 34.) 



P.? glaberrima; foliis oppositis ovaUbus seu ovali-oblongis subcoriaceis 

 supra lucidis creberrime penninerviis ; cymis longe pedunculatis 

 multifloris ; ovariis fere discretis stylo connexis. 



Hab. Mountains of Tutuila, one of the Samoan or Navigators' 

 Islands. 



A shrub or tree, glabrous throughout. Leaves opposite, approxi- 

 mate, oval and slightly pointed in the male specimen, oval-oblong and 

 more acuminate in the female specimen, obtuse or acutish at the base, 

 entire, 3 or 4 inches long, about 2 inches wide, rather coriaceous in 

 texture, bright green and shining above, slightly pale underneath, 

 thickly pellucid-punctate; the strong midrib sending off along its 

 whole length a great, number of transverse and close, pinnate veins, 

 which are very conspicuous on the upper surface, reticulated towards 

 the margins. Petioles about half an inch long. Peduncles elongated, 

 one or two inches in length, bearing a small, loosely flowered cyme or 

 panicle. Bracts and bractlets minute, subulate. Pedicels II to 2 

 lines long, fascicled, articulated. Flowers diceciously polygamous; 

 the male having a sterile gynaecium ; the female more or less effete 

 anthers. Calyx sprinkled with glands, deeply four-cleft, deciduous; 

 the lobes ovate, obtuse, imbricated in aestivation. Petals 4, deciduous, 

 valvate in aestivation, lanceolate-oblong, or ovate-oblong in the male 

 flowers, acutish, with a minute inflexed point, glandular and dotted. 

 Stamens 8, shorter than the petals, the alternate ones still shorter : 

 filaments glabrous, glandular; in the effete stamens of the fertile 

 flowers slightly ciliate. Ovaries 4, glabrous, glandular, supported on 



