RHIZOPHORACEiE. fiH 



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

 Islands. 



A small tree, glabrous throughout, with stout, terete, nodose 

 branches. Leaves opposite, obovate, 4 to 7 inches long, and 2 or 3 

 wide, obtuse or slightly acuminate, cuneate or contracted at the base 

 into a petiole about half an inch in length, loosely feather- veined, and 

 with the veinlets reticulated, chartaceous in texture, somewhat 

 shining, of the same hue both sides, very thickly and obscurely 

 pellucid-punctate by transmitted light. Stipules interpetioUir, con- 

 volute, fuscous, caducous, resembling those of the Legnotidew gene- 

 rally. Peduncles axillary, solitary, shorter than the petioles (3 or 4 

 lines long), naked, bearing 2 or 3, rarely 4, one-flowered (or occa- 

 sionally three-flowered) pedicels articulated with their apex and of 

 about the same length, subtended by small caducous bracts ? Flower 

 4 or 5 lines long when developed, nodding. Calyx quadrangular, 

 fleshy, deeply four-cleft ; the very short tube somewhat turbinate, the 

 broadly triangular lobes valvate in cestivation, glabrous, persistent. 

 Petals 4, inserted on the throat of the calyx just within the sinuses, 

 longer than its lobes, oblong or at length Ugulate, tapering gradually 

 into a claw, 3 lines long, minutely and softly pubescent externally, 

 except the thin margins, glabrous inside, carinate ("white," Forster), 

 truncate at the apex, where it is erosely three-five-toothed, with 

 the teeth subulate and unequal, the middle one usually longer and 

 setaceous, in cestivation involute or almost conduplicate. Stamens 

 usually 20, inserted on the slightly free margin of a fleshy perigynous 

 dish which lines the tube of the calyx : filaments slender, as long as 

 the petals, filiform from a subidate and dilated base, where they are 

 slightly concreted into a ring, along with as many alternate sterile fila- 

 ments; the latter subulate-linear, flat, and somewhat petaloid, nearly 

 naked below, above very hirsute-villous, especially on the inner face, 

 nearly as long as the calyx-lobes, about half the length of the antheri- 

 ferous filaments, which are glabrous, and each furnished with a large 

 and conspicuous, glabrous, globular gland at its base inside. Anthers 

 ovoid, introrse, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally. Style 

 slender, as long as the stamens, filiform, minutely striate J the apex 

 abruptly cut into a radiated fringe of mostly 12 short and filiform 

 lobes, stigmatose at their apex, and more or less manifestly collected 

 or at the base united into 4 phalanges, but by no means to the extent 



