Podostemacece. 169 



vent any one in future from following his example. In the 

 6th Vol. of the * Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh/ 

 Bongard has published several Brazilian species of this tribe, 

 under the name of Lacis ; but, according to Lindley, they 

 all belong to Mourera, with the exception of one species 

 (L. Monadelpha), and for it Lindley has proposed to con- 

 tinue the name Lacis, being well distinguished from Mourera 

 by its monadelphous stamens.* 



* I shall here give a description of the new Brazilian species of Marathrum 

 above alluded to. 



Marathrum lacunosum, Gardn. 



M. frondibus depressis suborbicularibus irregulariter lobatis sinuatisque, floribus 

 e fossae horizantali ad partim superiorem frondium exsertis solitariis, spatha tubulosa. 

 irregulariter, 4-54obata, staminibus 8, filamentis alternis antheriferisalternissterili- 

 bus. Marathrum lacunosum, Gardn. Herb. Ft. Braz. n. 5860. 



Hab. — On Granite rocks in the bed of the Rio Paquequer Grande, near Canta 

 Gallo, Province of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. April 1841. 



Descr. — Frond depressed, suborbicular, scarcely an inch in diameter, irregu- 

 larly lobed and laciniated, its under surface firmly attached to the rock on which it 

 grows. Flowers solitary, arising from deep wide horizontal concavities which 

 exist on the upper surface of the frond. Spathe tubular, clavate, irregularly 4 

 or 5-lobed at the apex, slightly scabrous externally, three or four lines long. 

 Pedicel cylindrical, about five lines long. Floral envelopes none. Stamens 8, 

 hypogynous, unilateral and external with regard to the axis of the frond : filaments 

 alternately barren and fertile : sterile linear, subulate, and shorter than the cap- 

 sule : fertile linear, complanate, about as long as the capsule, each bearing a 

 single anther : anthers linear-oblong, cordate at the base, spirally twisted when 

 dry, 2-celled, cells bursting longitudinally. Pollen yellow, globular. Ovary 

 sessile, superior, obsoletely 8-sulcate, 2-celled. Ovules numerous, ascending, 

 attached to fleshy dissepimental placentae. Style none. Stigmata 2, sessile, 

 reniform, with laciniated margins. Capsule oblong, about one and a half lines 

 long, deeply 8-sulcate, 2-celled, 2-valved, with a septicidal dehiscence. Pla- 

 centae attached to the dissepiment, all of which ultimately become free. Seeds 

 numerous, ascending, elliptical, obtuse, compressed : testa brownish. Embryo 

 exalbuminous, dicotyledonous, orthotropous : cotyledons thick: radical obtuse, 

 short, pointing towards the hilum. 



Obser.— It is not without some hesitation that I refer this plant to Marathrum y 

 and have done so chiefly because I am not well acquainted with the species of which 

 the genus is composed. The arrangement of the stamens differs from that of those 

 of the original species ( Marathrum fceniculaceum, Humb. et Bonp.), in being 

 unilateral, and not, as in it, regularly surrounding the ovary. I regret much that 



