AKDISIA. 
33 
rescence is almost precisely that of Ilex Perado Ait. or of Catha 
Dryandri Lowe. Cal. cleft rather more than § down into o or 
rarely 4 permanent half-ovate rather thick and fleshy subobtuse 
teeth, slightly imbricate only at the base, rugose and sprinkled 
with minute red dots, exactly the length of the ov. Cor. deeply 
5- or rarely 4-fld, segments in bud perfectly yalvate ! forming 
an obtuse 5- or 4-angular cone or pyramid ; in fl. spreading 
stellately but scarcely reflexed, with the tips very slightly if at 
all spirally contorted, narrow-lanceolate or acuminato-ligulate, 
of a thickish spongy substance, bright gr. outside, pale yel- 
lowish and appearing covered on flrst opening with a whitish 
mealy coat inside, about two lines long or 3 times the length of 
the sep. and so deeply cleft as to appear like distinct pet., being 
united at the base only by a narrow ring which is cohcealed 
by the cal. Stain. 5 or rarely 4, opposite but shorter than the 
pet., ascending and slightly converging ; fil. broad flattened 
gr., inserted on each pet. just above its junction with the next ; 
antli. large a little shorter than their fil., pale yellowish. Style 
simple taper-pointed, as long as the smooth turbinate or de- 
presso-globose subprismatic i. e. 5-4-angular rugose 1-celled 
ov. Ovules numerous radiant, all but one almost from the first 
abortive. Fr. a small hard subdepressedlv globose 1-seeded 
berry-like drupe, 3-4 lines in diam., smooth shining with some- 
times a slight bloom, at first bright reddish purple, then dark 
purplish black, scarcely at all succulent, crowned with the 
subulate persistent more or less worn-down style. Flesh thin 
(a mere skin) with no pulp and very little juice. Taste sub- 
astringent with but very little sweetness, yet in the neighbour- 
hood of the Jardim da Serra occasionally eaten by children, and 
in the Canaries reported by Webb to be made into a conserve, 
which, however, he adds, is solely indebted to a quantity of 
sugar for any good qualities it may be considered to possess. 
Immediately beneath and in close adherence with the thin and 
nearly juieeless skin or sarcocarp is the pale brown crustaceous 
shelly thin and brittle smooth and even seed-coat (testa), lined 
with a thin chestnut-brown smooth skin or pellicle, which is 
easily separable both from the shelly testa and the seed or 
kernel which it immediately envelopes, and which consists 
almost entirely of hard corneous subpellucid bluish w. albumen, 
and is peltately depresso-globose or cushion-shaped with a very 
large roundish umbilical pit or cavity beneath (hilum) filled 
with a brown spongy and partly woody mass, the surface 
smooth and even except a few irregular erose pits or sinuous 
cavities, like those on the surface of an Almond-shell (Amyg- 
dalus communis L.), filled with a friable brown spongy sub- 
stance. The depth of the umbilical pit is half that of the seed 
itself, and its width one third of the diam. of the same; its 
margins are obtuse, slightly 5-lobe d and wrinkled, with the 
