142 
THALAMI FLORAS. 
thers 1 -celled, opening transversely at the apex, or 
2- or even 4-celled. Ovary concealed by the tube, 
distinct : style 1 : stigmata 1-3 : ovules erect. Fruit 
either 3 samaroid carpels, or berried with from 1 to 3 
cells. Seeds 4 or more in each cell, attached to the 
axis in pairs, sometimes several of them abortive, 
erect, exalbuminose. Embryo straight : radicle point- 
ing towards the base : cotyledons flat, elliptico-ob- 
long, somewhat fleshy, cohering when dry. 
Arborescent or climbing shrubs ; principally natives of Soutli 
America. The fruit of Tonsella pyriformis, a native of 
Sierra Leone, about the size of a Bergamot pear, is said to 
have a rich sweet flavour, and to be eatable : and the nuts of 
Hippocratea comosa, a native of St Domingo, are, according 
to Swartz ( FI . Ind. Occ. I. 78.), sweet and oily. 
I. Hippocratea. 
Petals generally foveated at the apex. Stamens 3. 
Anthers 1 -celled, transversely dehiscent. Carpels 3 
(or by abortion 1-2) samaroid, bivalved, with the 
valves keeled and very much compressed. Seeds 
winged downwards, from the umbilical cord being 
very much expanded. — De Cand. 
Named , by Plunder, in honour of Hippocrates, the celebrated 
Greek physician. 
1. * Hippocratea ovata ? Ovate-leaved Hippocratea. 
Carpels ovate, panicles axillary subdichotoinous, 
leaves oblongo-ovate or elliptic serrated. — I)e Cand. 
H. volubilis, Swartz, Obs. 28 Robinson , in Lunans Hort. 
Jam. I. 373 — H. paniculata, Roem. et Schultz , Mant. I. 396. — 
H. ovata, Lam. III. I. 100. t. 28. f. 2. 
1IAB. Near Cabaritta River Robinson. Near the fording 
at Ginger-Hall Works, St Thomas in the East. 
FL. Spring. 
A scandent shrub : branches opposite, stiff, arched, patent, 
Leaves opposite, subcoriaceous, glabrous. Racemes terminal ; 
divisions opposite. Flowers small, greenish-white, subsessile. 
Carpels an inch in length. 
1 regret having omitted examining this plant in a more par- 
ticular manner. 
