672 PHANEROGAMIA. 



roundish, sharply serrate, subsessile, nearly membranaceous in texture, 

 pinnately veined, pubescent when young, at length glabrate, except 

 the midrib and veins underneath. Flowers minute (two-thirds of a 

 line across), sessile on the slender ramifications of the ample, com- 

 pound or decompound spreading panicles, which are axillary, or else 

 terminate short axillary branchlets. Calyx glabrous, five-parted ; the 

 lobes triangular-ovate (valvate in aestivation, according to Dr. Hooker), 

 persistent. Petals 5, linear-spatulate, scarcely exceeding the calyx, 

 deciduous. Stamens 10, inserted into the base of the calyx outside 

 of the deeply ten-lobed disk, alternate with its lobes : filaments fili- 

 form, exserted ; those opposite the petals longer than the others : 

 anthers didymous, two-celled, opening longitudinally. Ovary free, 

 densely hirsute, two-celled, many-ovuled : styles 2, distinct, filiform : 

 stigmas minute, terminal. Ovules in several series, amphitropous. 

 Capsule ovate, turgid, free, subtended at the base by the small and 

 persistent calyx (which is now raised on an extremely short pedicel), 

 hairy, 2 or 2i lines long, two-celled, septicidal, the valves pointed by 

 the persistent styles, at length two-cleft above. /Seeds numerous or 

 several in each cell, nearly half a line long, turgid-ovoid, slightly 

 apiculate at each end, hemitropous, the short rhaphe slender : testa 

 membranaceous, not reticulated, conformed to the nucleus, rather 

 sparsely beset all over with very long and lax hairs. Embryo nearly 

 the length of the sparing albumen : radicle cylindraceous : cotyledons 

 broadly oval, thickish, about the length of the radicle. 



Our specimens bear ripe fruit only, with an abundance of well- 

 formed seeds, apparently in better condition than any previously 

 examined. They are not " smooth and rostrate," as stated by End- 

 licher, although there is a minute apiculation at each end, nor are the 

 perfect ones " extremely minute, and with a lax reticulated testa; ' as 

 described by Dr. Hooker. Abortive seeds often occur to which this 

 description will nearly apply, but the matured ones are not very 

 small, the testa is conformed to the nucleus, not at all reticulated, 

 and beset with very long hairs, like those of Weinmannia generally. 

 Dr. Hooker remarks that Ackama is hardly distinct from Weinmannia, 

 except in the form of the petals. He assigns, however, another cha- 

 racter, namely a valvate calyx, and perhaps correctly : the few flowers 

 that I possess are too far advanced to verify the point. But even if 

 it be so, this character, along with the narrow petals and the panicu- 



