CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
105 
angular at base, for the length of about 3 inches, and in the 
remainder is glabrous and beset with alternate nodules, consist- 
ing of single or aggregated, very short pedicels, left bare by the 
falling away of all the articulated flowers. The fruit, according 
to Dr. Vogel’s notes, is red, fleshy, oval and pendulous, and 
from his rough sketch of a transverse section it would appear to 
be somewhat compressed and to contain two seeds : if this be 
the case, it would bear out a still stronger analogy to the in- 
stance I have recorded in Pennantia *. 
3. Sarcostigma Horsfieldii, R. Br. PI. Jav. Rarior. 241. tab. 47. 
— Java. 
Discophora. 
The characters that warrant the establishment of this genus 
are few, but when taken in conjunction with the peculiar habit 
of the plant and the different country of its origin, they seiwe to 
mark its place. The specimen upon which it is founded is a 
native of Guiana, with ovuligerous flowers which are far ad- 
vanced, for the petals and stamens are fallen away, leaving only 
the calyx and ovarium, which is crowned with a discoid process : 
in the internal structure of the ovarium, and the form of its per- 
sistent calyx, articulated on its pedicel, it is strictly conformable 
with other genera of this family; and in the peltoid disk that 
crowns the ovarium it resembles Sarcostigma, Pennantia, and 
Stemonurus, all of Asiatic origin ; but in this case this process is 
much smaller and somewhat reniform. In one instance I found 
a single petal remaining, just sufficient to mark its character. As 
it cannot be referred to any one of the genera above mentioned, 
I propose to call it Discophora, from Bicko^, discus, (f)epco, fero. 
The few characters known may be designated in the following 
manner : — 
Discophora, gen. nov. — Calyx minimus, brevissime cupuli- 
formis, fere integer, obsolete 5-denticulatus, persistens. Pe- 
tala 5, linearia, glaberrima, textura tenui, nervo mediano lon- 
gitudinali notata, cito caduca. Stamina ignota, mox decidua. 
Ovarium liberum, cylindricum, glabrum, 1-loculare; ovula 2, 
juxta apicem loculi superposita, podospermio crasso subcolla- 
teraliter suspensa, anatropa. Stylus cum stigmate confusus, 
demum subreniformi-discoideus, parvus, subconcavus. Fructus 
ignotus. — Frutex Guianensis; folia alterna, oblonga, majuscula, 
glaberrima, petiolata ; racemi axillares, divaricatim ramosi ; 
’ flores parvi, cum pedicellis articulati. 
1. Discophora Guianensis-, — omnino glaberrima, ramulis tere- 
* This plant is figured in plate 19 of this volume. 
P 
VOL. I. 
