180 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
(Walp. Rep. vi. 459). S. Obassia, from Japan, bears greatly the 
habit and inflorescence of Pterostyrax ; but, as its fruit is said to 
be drupaceous, it must be referred to the tribe Styracinea : its 
broadish rounded petals are much imbricated in aestivation. 
S. odoratissimum, from China, is a very distinct species; its 
corolla is also imbricated in aestivation, and its drupe is acutely 
mucronated, with a tendency to split at the base into three 
regular valves. S. Benzoin appears to differ from both in having 
very entire leaves and a compound raceme. I have not seen its 
flowers ; but its fruit corresponds with that of S. officinalis. 
2. Cyrta. 
I have already alluded to the principal features that distin- 
guish this genus from Styrax: its thicker and more ligneous 
pericarp opens at the apex and splits down to the base in three 
equal valves ; the form of its much thicker petals and the manner 
of their aestivation are different from those in Styrax, Halesia, 
and Pterostyrax, being valvate or slightly introflexed, as in 
Strigilia, Pamphilia, and Foveolaria. I have drawn up its ge- 
neric character from observation upon most of the under- 
mentioned species. 
Cyrta, Loureiro. — Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx urceolato-cya- 
thiformis, margine 5-dentatus, dentibus nervis prominulis 
decurrentibus hinc 5-carmatus, persistens. Petala 5, lineari- 
_ oblonga, acuta, crassiuscula, extus tomentella, intus glabra, imo 
adhsesione fllamentorum breviter subconnata, aestivatione val- 
vata, marginibus subinvolutis. Stamina 10, uniserialia, erecta, 
petalis aequilonga; filamenta linearia, angusta, complanata, 
pilosa, cum petalis orta, et ad eorundem basin breviter et laxe 
cohaerentia, in aestivatione replicata ; antheree liueares, 2-lobae, 
lobis parallelis ad filamentum angustiorem dorso adnatis et 
duplo vel triple brevioribus, saepe stellatim pilosis, antroreum 
longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium omnino superum, 
turbinatum, summo depressum, imo 10-sulcatum, calyce 
quadruple brevius, tomentosum, 1-loculare, interne carinis 3 
prominulis parietalibus e placenta libera brevi centrali orienti- 
bus, hinc brevissime pseudo-3-locellatum ; ovula pauca, e basi 
erecta, in tuberculis totidem placentae sessa. Stylus simplex, 
tenuis, glaber, longitudine staminum, summo paullo incrassatus 
et vacuus. Stigma obsolete 3-dentatum. Drupa sicca, coriacea, 
calyce immutato triple breviori suffulta, turbinata, vel ovata, 
1-locularis, 1-sperma, in valvis 3 aequalibus ab apice ad basin 
hians. Semen erectum, solitarium, subglobosum, structura 
omnino Styracis, nisi embryone magis oblique. 
