224 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
simis, folio tertio brevioribus ; floribus parvulis, pedicellis 
capillaribus. — Prope Panure, Rio Uaupes, Brasilia Septentr. 
(Spruce). 
The axils of tbe branches are shorter than in the other spe- 
cies, being from i to | inch apart ; the leaves are 2^ inches 
long and 11-12 lines broad, on a petiole 3 lines in length: 
the inflorescence is | inch long, spreading to an inch in breadth ; 
the delicate pedicels are 7 lines long, the flowers in bud being 
1| line in length. 
Cathedra. 
This genus has been described in p. 9 of this volume and in 
Ann. Nat. Hist. (2nd ser, vii. 452); and the Diplocrater of Mr. 
Bentham (Kew Journ. Bot. iii. 367) does not appear to me to 
differ from it. Throughout the Olacacea there is a general dis- 
position to a vast increment of the calyx, as in Olax, Heisteria, 
and Liriosma ; in Schbpfia it is the disk that enlarges and be- 
comes adnate to the fruit; but in Cathedra not only a con- 
siderable growth takes place in both the calyx and the disk, 
but generally one, and sometimes two of the cupuliform bracts, 
at flrst scarcely distinguishable, suddenly swell rapidly after tbe 
fall of the corolla, and the growing ovarium thus becomes sur- 
rounded by 3 or 4 distinct free cups, which are more or less 
concentric or superimposed. The ripe fruit is not known ; but 
I have represented in Plate 2 the appearance of these disks 
when the ovary has attained ten times the size it had at the 
period of the fall of the corolla. I now add the details of two 
other species from Spruce’s collections : — 
1. Cathedra rubricaulis, nob., huj. op. p. 14. pi. 2; Ann. Nat. 
Hist. 2 ser. vii. 458; Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro. 
2. Cathedra Gardneriana, nob., loc. cit. 
3. Cathedra acuminata. — Diplocrater acuminata, Benth. Kew 
Journ. Bot. iii. 367 ; — ramis glabris, striatellis, ramulis flori- 
feris virgatis, fusco-pruinosis, sub lente brevissime hirtellis ; 
foliis oblongo-ellipticis, summo abrupte attenuatis, acutis, 
utrinque glabris, submembranaceis, subtus brunnescentibus ; 
nervis paucis, paullo prominentibus, reticulatis, petiolo tenui, 
subbrevi ; floribus minimis, axillaribus, paucis, fasciculatis, 
breviter pedicellatis. — Barra do Rio Negro, Brasilia Septentr. 
(Spruce, anno 1850-1851). 
A tree 1 5-20 feet in height ; the internodes of the branchlets 
are 1-lg inch apart; the leaves are 3|-4 inches long, l^-lg in. 
broad, on a petiole 3 lines in length : about 3-6 flowers in each 
