ARALIACE.dE. 73I 



1. Botryodendrtjm Taitense, Guill. (Tab. 96.) 



B. /otitis lanceolatis utrinque acutis chartaceis ad apicem ramorum con- 

 fertis; thyrso capitulorum erecto. 



Botryodendrum Taitense, Guill. Zeph. Tait. p. 55, sine char. 

 B. cerberoides & B. lancifolium, Rich, in Herb. 



Hab. Tahiti, Society Islands ; in mountain forests. 



The specimens consist, 1st, of a branch, with narrow, almost linear- 

 lanceolate leaves, and a portion of inflorescence, with fruit, ticketed 

 B. lancifolium, N. Sp., Tahiti, by Mr. Eich j and 2d, of one with 

 larger and broader, but otherwise similar leaves, with some detached 

 fruitful inflorescence, and male and female flowers, imperfectly pre- 

 served, ticketed B. cerberoides, N. Sp., Samoa, by Mr. Rich. But, 

 on referring to Dr. Pickering's memoranda, I find evidence that 

 both specimens were gathered at Tahiti ; and they appear to be mere 

 varieties of one and the same species. I regret that the state of the 

 materials does not allow me properly to illustrate the genus (of 

 which no figure has yet been published), nor to compare this species 

 with Endlicher's B. angustifolium of Norfolk Island, to which it 

 appears nearly allied. Our plant is stated to be a shrub, from 8 to 

 12 feet high. The leaves are chartaceous in texture, glabrous, as is 

 the whole plant, lanceolate, acute at both ends, entire, alternate, 

 crowded at the summit of the branches ; in the narrow-leaved form 

 only 7 or 8 inches long and three-fourths of an inch wide, on petioles 

 of 2 inches in length, the apex tapering to a very acute point; in 

 the other, they are from 8 inches to a foot long (in the notes of Dr. 

 Pickering said to be 18 inches long), 2 or 2i inches wide, inclining 

 to elongated-elliptical, more or less acute or pointed. The flowers, 

 as far as can be ascertained, accord with Endlicher's character, except 

 that the short lobes of the calyx in the female flowers are valvate m 

 sestivation, and the divisions of the male perianth and the stamens 

 apparently only 3. Stigmas 6 to 8, linear, recurved. Drupes glo- 

 bose, baccate, a third of an inch in diameter, capitate-clustered on 

 the short branches of the apparently erect and thyrsoid inflorescence. 

 Pyrense 8, compressed, coriaceous or cartilagineous. Albumen between 



