BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
63 
tioles ; flowers unisexual. Males : calyx hairy, tubular, sur- 
rounded by a laciniated bractea, six-parted ; corolla absent ; 
stamens nine, divided in three parcels of different sizes, the 
large ones opposite the segments of the calyx, filaments 
somewhat crooked ; anthers ovate, two-celled, dehiscing 
lengthwise. Females : calyx provided with the bractea, three- 
parted ; petals three, lanceolate ; ovarium superior ; styles or 
stigmas three ; akenia triangular, protected by the calyx ; 
seed farinaceous. 
Dr. Lindley, in his Natural System of Botany, in speaking 
of the geographical distribution of Polygonece, observes, 
“ There are few parts of the world that do not acknowledge 
the presence of plants of this order. In Europe, Africa, 
North America, and Asia, they fill the ditches, hedges, and 
waste grounds, in the form of Docks and Persicarias : the 
fields, mountains, and heaths, as Sorrels and training and 
twining Polygonums ; in South America and the West In- 
dies they take the form of Coccolabas or sea-side grapes ; in 
the Levant of Rhubarbs ; and even in the desolate regions of 
the North Pole they are found in the shape of Oxyria.” 
The object of my description adds another instance to illus- 
trate these remarks ; the Triplaris, which pronounces, in its 
habits of growth, leaves, stipulag, its triangular nut protected 
by the calyx, the farinaceous albumen, &c. its relationship to 
that tribe, extends from Columbia to the verge of Brazil’s 
western boundary. The sandy banks of the inland rivers of 
Guiana are peopled with them ; and when shrubs, stunted in 
growth by the poverty of the soil, scarcely reach the height 
of five or six feet, the Triplaris overtops them forty or fifty 
feet. The trunk is slender and grows up straight, and its 
erect branches form a pyramid. As already observed, it is 
unisexual, and the flowers of both sexes are insignificant : 
those of the male last only for a few days, when they dry up ; 
this is likewise the case with the petals of the females : the 
segments of the calyx however continue to grow, changing 
in their growth from green to white and vermilion, and be- 
come so attenuated that the branched nerves are easily per- 
ceptible. In that state they are three times as large as the 
fruit, which is still protected by the tube of the calyx, and 
the whole might in appearance be resembled to a shuttlecock. 
The risps are dense, and the tree presents now a most elegant 
appearance. One unacquainted with the contrary, would 
consider the tree covered with white blossoms, tinged with 
red, among which the dark green leaves have only occasion- 
