16 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
2. Cathedra Gardneriana, n. sp. ; ramis nodosis, subflexuosis ; 
folds oblongis, glaberrimis, supra subnitidis, subtus pallid io- 
ribus, petiolo tenuiori ; floribus in axillis paucioribus. — Tejuca, 
prope Rio de Janeiro. Gardner, no. 5380 bis. — v. s. in herb. 
Hooker. 
This plant, referi’ed to in the preceding page as described by 
Mr. Bentham, is distinct from the foregoing species, but the spe- 
cimen in Sir Wm. Hooker’s herbarium is not in good condition, 
being almost bare of leaves, only two or three of which are re- 
maining ; these are smaller than in my plant, are not spreading 
and deflected, are not coriaceous, and they grow black in drying ; 
they are 2| inches long, and 1 inch broad, upon a petiole 3 lines 
in length*. 
Liriosma. 
This genus, proposed by Pbppig, and figured in his 'Nov. Gen.’ 
tab. 239, for a species found by him near the Rio Negro, in Bra- 
zilian Guiana, is yet but imperfectly known : its characters there 
given are in many respects incorrect or incomplete. That bo- 
tanist referred it to Olacacece, it having been at first placed in 
Styracece by Endlicher. Two other species were soon afterwards 
announced, for which another new genus, under the name of 
Hijpocarpus, was proposed by Prof. A. DeCandolle, in his ' Prodr.’ 
\Tii. 245, which he considered to be more related to Styracece ; 
but he was soon undeceived, as in the addenda to the same vo- 
lume, p. 673, he recognised its identity with Liriosma. Prom a 
plant which I found near Rio de Janeiro in 1830, and which I 
then examined, I am enabled to complete the generic character, 
as far as regards the details of the frnit and seed, and at the same 
time, I now add my analysis of the floral structure of L. Gardne- 
riana. Both Pbppig and DeCandolle describe the ovarium in 
this genus to be half imbedded in the adhering calyx ; I find on 
the contrary that although the lower moiety of the ovarium is 
glabrous, and closely invested by the fleshy cup of the calyx, it 
is yet perfectly free from it,, even for a considerable period after 
the fall of the corolla ; the ovarium now increases more than the 
calyx, but at length the latter assnmes the greatest increment, 
and at last wholly incloses it, becoming agglutinated with it, 
and converted into an enveloping pulp, leaving a small umbilical 
hollow in the summit and showing there the remains of its epi- 
g}Tious gland. The presence of a fleshy epigynous gland upon 
an inferior ovarium is a circumstance of the most ordinary oc- 
currence, where it is held to be an abortive whorl of stamens ; 
its existence npon a perfectly superior ovarium was therefore 
* A di-avnng of the ovarium and its section, with the suiTOunding cup- 
shaped bracts, is also given in plate 2. 
