114 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY, 
those of Ilex-, but a ready test is always to be observed in the 
flower, the pistil in the former genus being furnished with a 
lengthened style, while in the latter the stigma is always quite 
sessile : the fruit of the one can never be confounded with that 
of the other. Many of the Brazilian species have much larger 
and thinner leaves, and the inflorescence is frequently tei’minal 
in subfasciculated spikes : they bear much the appearance of 
Leretia, a Brazilian genus of the Icacinacece — a family differing 
chiefly from the AquifoliacecB in the aestivation of the corolla and 
the mode of development of the fruit. In the before-mentioned 
species of Villaresia growing at Kew, where some of its flowers 
had a 2-celled ovary, with two ovules in each cell, suspended 
from the summit of the dissepiment, I found that, in this case, 
it had two styles. 
All the species belonging to the genus form erect trees having 
straight trunks, with copious frondose heads ; but Prof. Reisseck 
states, in his generic diagnosis (in Mart. Plor. Bras. fasc. xxviii. 
p. 75), that the plants are sometimes scandent. Prom this it may 
be inferred that he alludes to the Villaresia scandens of Hasskarl ; 
but that plant (from Java) cannot belong to the genus, nor even 
to the same family*. 
The following emended generic characters are founded on my 
own observations, except those of the fruit and seed, wdiich are 
copied from the description of Jussieu. 
Villaresia, R. & P. ; — Citronella, Don j — Flores hermaphroditi 
vel rarius polygami. Sepala 5, acuta, imo connata, sestiva- 
tione imbricata, persistentia. Petala 5, libera, sepalis alterna, 
oblonga, nervo mediano prominulo intus instructa, margine- 
tenui, undulato-crenata, sestivatione quincuncialiter imbricata, 
apicibus valde introflexis et inter se complicatis. Stamina^, cum 
petalis alternantia, et iis paulo breviora ; filamenta complanato- 
subulata; anthera. introrsse, cordato-reniformes, 2-loculares, 
longitudinaliter dehiscentes. Ovarium sessile, conicum, sse- 
pius subgibbum et 1-loculare, intus carina parietal! (e loculis 
abort! vis in axem centralem congest! s) valde prominente no- 
• In Retzia, i. 152; Walp. Ann. iv. 431 ; it diflFers from Villaresia in its 
scandent habit, its 2-locular ovarium with only a single pendent ovule in 
each cell, and its exalbuminous seed with large fleshy cotyledons. On this 
account it seems more likely to be allied to Chailletia, with which it appears 
to agree in the structure of its flower and fruit. I know the plant only 
from description : from its glabrous leaves, white corymbose flowers, which 
are free, and not connate with the petiole, its entire petals, and simple long 
glabrous style, it is perhaps near to, if not identical with, Chailletia {Di- 
chapetalum) Timoriensis, DC., with which it also agrees in its geographical 
position. The Chailletia dichapetalum, R. Br., from Madagascar, is scan- 
dent. 
