20 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
This is a small tree about 12 feet high, with odoriferous 
flowers, and with leaves mostly 3 inches long, 1^ in. broad, on a 
petiole of 2 or 3 lines ; the petals are of a sulphur-yellow colour, 
linear, 3 lines long, thick, fleshy, and quite glabrous. The six 
sterile stamens are two-thirds the length of the petals, and are 
always placed opposite to them ; the three fertile stamens are 
shorter, and situated at points between each second petal, and 
ai’e therefore alternate with them ; all the filaments are free 
above, but adhere at their base to the petals for the length of a 
quarter of a line, by which agglutination these are formed into 
three distinct bifid petals, cleft nearly to the base ; but the fila- 
ments are easily detached, and then the united petals separate of 
themselves, thus showing the corolla to be in no degree gamo- 
petalous ; the four anther-cells open by two longitudinal lines, as 
above described, and are filled with a number of pollen-grains, 
aggregated into a mass, by a quantity of loose yellowish grumous 
matter ; the pollen-grains are roundish, with three globular 
equidistant, marginal vesicles, each terminated by a mammillary 
point ; they are extremely thin in texture : all the filaments, both 
sterile and fertile, are covered with long white cottony hairs, 
which ultimately become glued to the petals. The ovarium is 
half immersed in the cupuliform disk ; the exserted moiety is 
covered by the fleshy epigynous gland, which is hairy : before 
aestivation, the lower portion of the ovarium is quite free from 
the enveloping disk, but it soon becomes agglutinated to it, by 
the same mucilaginous exudation (probably evolved by the disk) 
that glues the base of the stamens to the petals : even after the 
ripening of the flower, the cupuliform disk is most easily separated 
from the ovarium, without the slightest rupture of the parts ; but 
it cannot be torn away from the calyx without laceration. 
4. Liriosma Velloziana, A. DC. Prodr. viii. 673. Olax Velloziana, 
Bth. Land. Journ. Bot. ii. 375 ; — ramulis glabris, foliis • 
obovatis, acuminatis, et mucronulatis, basi obtusiusculis, re- 
ticulato-venosis, nervis divaricatis, utrinque glaberrimis, petiolo 
brcvi, canaliculato ; racemo brevi, axillari, 3-5-floro; ovario 
pubescente ; fructu ovali, incarnato, pulpa molli. — Rio de Ja- 
neiro. I 
The leaves are smaller than the last species, about 2 or 2| inches 
long, inch broad, on a petiole 3 lines in length ; they are 
acuminated from the middle of the leaf, and are more fleshy and 
opaque : the raceme is shorter ; the drupe is oval, 9 lines long, 
6 lines in diameter, polished, and of a light scarlet colour, with a 
circular brownish depression in the apex it is soft and fleshy, 
inclosing a thin subosseous putamen ; the details of the structure 
of its seed will be found in the following remarks on the aflini- 
