SAXIFRAGACE^. 



679 



radicida in/era. — Arbores Polynesicce ; trunco crasso; stipulis inter- 

 petiolaribus ; foliis dlgitatis tri-quinquefoliolatis ; fioribus purpureis ; 

 racemis lateralibus. 



G-eissois, Labill. Sert. Austro-Cal. p. 50, t. 50; Endl. Gen. p. 819. 



1. Geissois ternata, Sp. Nov. (Tab. 86.) 



0. foliis trifoliolatis ; ovario glabro ; staminibus scepissime 14 vel 15. 



Hab. Feejee Islands ; common on the mountains of Muthuata and 

 Ovolau, between the altitudes of 500 and 2,000 feet. 



" Tree 30 or 40 feet high, with a trunk of 2 feet in diameter ;" the 

 branches terete, nodose ; the branchlets petioles, &c, minutely silky- 

 puberulent when young. Leaves trifoliolate, opposite, on petioles from 

 half an inch to an inch long. Leaflets oblong or obovate-elliptical, 

 obtuse, acutish, or a little pointed at both ends, entire, glabrous, char- 

 taceous in texture in the dried specimens, from 2 to 5 inches long, 

 pinnately veined : the partial petioles 3 to 5 lines in length. Stipules 

 interpetiolar, canescently hirsute in the bud, in this state apparently 

 not costate, caducous, all the developed ones having disappeared. 

 Racemes lateral, solitary from the axils above the scars whence the 

 leaves of the previous season have fallen, or even from older wood, 

 spreading, many-flowered. Pedicels 2 or 3 lines long, scattered, 

 subtended by small and subulate caducous bractlets. Flower-buds 

 nearly 3 lines long, ovoid, glabrous. Calyx four-parted nearly to the 

 base ; the segments triangular-oblong, acutish, thickish, valvate in 

 aestivation, spreading in anthesis, purplish-red, somewhat pubescent 

 inside, tardily deciduous. Corolla none. Stamens 14 or 15 in most 

 specimens examined, sometimes 12, or perhaps fewer, inserted at the 

 base of a thickened and entire gynobasic disk just at its junction 

 with the base or origin of the calyx, therefore obscurely perigynous : 

 filaments filiform, thickish towards the base, half an inch long, thrice 

 the length of the calyx, deep red, deciduous: anthers didymous, 

 fixed by the middle, incumbent, two-celled, destitute of a manifest 

 connective ; the cells opening longitudinally. Grains of pollen glo- 

 bose, simple. Ovary free, conoidal-oblong, glabrous, terete, two- 



