MYRTACE.E. 527 



petiolatis fere membranaceis laxe penninerviis, venis intra marginem 

 arcuato-anastomosantibus ; cymis paniculatis decompositis folia supe- 

 rantibus; pedunculis partialibus gracilibus divaricatis; calyce clavato, 

 Umbo subintegro ; fructu clavato-fusiformi ; semine oblongo. 



Hab. Feejee, Samoan or Navigators' (and Society?) Islands. 

 (Probably through, some mistake one of the specimens is ticketed, 

 " Tahiti.") 



Apparently a tree (the size not recorded), with slender and spread- 

 ing terete branches, glabrous throughout. Leaves nearly membra- 

 naceous in texture, dull both sides, scarcely paler beneath, elliptical- 

 lanceolate or oblong, more or less acuminate, acute at the base, about 4 

 inches long and an inch and a half wide, on a short petiole of a line 

 or two in length, somewhat pellucid-punctate, loosely feather-veined; 

 the veins rather conspicuous, sparingly reticulated underneath, mostly 

 confluent into an undulate false vein a little distance within the 

 margin. Cymes terminal and sometimes axillary, ample, decompound, 

 paniculate, diffuse, 5 to 8 inches in length, peduncled; the slender 

 partial peduncles divaricately spreading, terete, many-flowered; the 

 ultimate divisions 3-5-flowered. Bracts and bractlets minute, cadu- 

 cous. Flowers subsessile on the ultimate ramifications, divergent; 

 the flower-buds club-shaped, 2 to 3 lines long, including the pedicel- 

 like base. Calyx clavate; the summit produced beyond the ovary 

 and subglobose in the bud, dilated after anthesis ; the margin trun- 

 cate, nearly entire, or obscurely repand-four-toothed, the broad teeth 

 at length deciduous. Corolla of 4 rounded small petals, coherent in 

 a lid, which falls off entire in anthesis. Stamens numerous, inserted 

 just within the edge of the calyx, not collected in phalanges, inflexed 

 in aestivation, 2 to 3 lines long. Style as long as the stamens : stigma 

 simple. Ovary two-celled, with 8 or 10 ovules in each cell. Fruit 

 fleshy, becoming dry ? clavate or spindle-shaped, almost an inch long, 

 3 or 4 lines wide, one-celled, one-seeded. Seed oblong, with a very thin 

 testa. Cotyledons oblong, fleshy, not very thick, not conferruminate, 

 but sinuously embracing each other, peltately attached near their 

 middle to the slender and straight, included, superior radicle. The 

 fruit as well as the ovary is inodorous and tasteless. 



This ambiguous plant has the embryo as well as the elongated 



