CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
121 
versus axillas nervorum, aliisque minutis vagis ; petiolo sub- 
tenui profunde canaliculato : panicula ramosa, terminali, pe- 
tiolo 3-plo longiore ; floribus parvulis, sessilibus in ramis sub- 
glomerulato-spicatis ; sepalis villosis; petalis ovatis, paulo 
acutis, intus carinatis, sepalis 2-plo longioribus ; staminibus, 
sepalis pistilloque sequilongis ; ovario glabro, vel pilis paucis 
in sulco ventrali munito; stylo brevi; stigmate clavato. — In 
montibus Organensibus prov. Rio de Janeiro, v. v. 
This species is near V. megaphijlla, but has many distinct fea- 
tures. Its leaves are 4-5 inches long, l|-2 inches broad, on 
a petiole 4-5 lines long. The panicle is little more than an inch 
long; it has several alternate branches, 4-6 lines long, the 
lateral branchlets being extremely short or almost obsolete, each 
bearing three sessile flowers in its apex, which make the branches 
appear glomerate-spicate ; the flowers expanded are smaller than 
any of the preceding. 
8. Villaresia paniculata, nob. ; — Leonia paniculata. Mart. hb. 
Bras. No. 420; DC. Prodr. viii. 669 {in adnot.)) — Leretia 
paniculata. Mart. Flor. Bras. fasc. xvii. p. 17 in not.-, — folds 
oblongis, basi attenuatis, apice obtusis vel acutis, coriaceis; 
nervis tertiariis vix distinctis; paniculis terminalibus, con- 
tracts, folio brevioribus ; drupa oblonga, 1-sperm^i. — In syl- 
vis prov. Rio de Janeiro. 
I have not seen this plant, which evidently is very closely 
allied to, if not identical with, one of the three last-named spe- 
cies. The size of the leaves is not given by DeCandolle, nor the 
characters of the flower ; but its fruit and seed are completely 
those of V. mucronata. The calyx is said to be 5-partite, with 
puberulous ovate sepals; the drupe oblong and 1-seeded, the 
seed being plicated round the prominent longitudinal indurated 
placenta, which is enlarged by other two abortive cells, and 
projects far into the cavity of the fertile cell, the seed being 
suspended from its summit. The specimen, being fructiferous, 
appears to have had no flowers, as Prof. DeCandolle says of it, 
“flore ignoto.^’ 
.iExTOXICUM. 
The position of this genus of the Flora Peruviana has not yet 
been satisfactorily established ; but the observations I have been 
enabled to make will probably throw some light on the subject. 
The only botanist who has suggested a place for it is Sir Wm. 
Hooker, who, in 1837, referred it to Euphorbiacece but the 
structure of the fruit and seed, with other characters, militate 
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