134 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
originating in the base of the cells of the ovary, the external 
tunic of its seeds being an arilhne, that is to say, a fleshy coat- 
ing containing the vessels of the raphe, and covering an internal 
testaceous integument ; but it differs in the position of its sta- 
mens in regard to the disk, and in the aestivation of its petals. 
It agrees with the Icacinacea in the aestivation of its sepals and 
petals, in the long apical inflection of the petals (as in Mappia, 
Stemonums, &c.), in the hairy appendages of its stamens (as in 
Steinonurus) , and in the number of cells in its ovary (as in Em- 
motum) ; but it differs in the position of its stamens with respect 
to the disk, and in its erect ovules and seeds. 
If we maintain any consistency in our demarcations of the 
limits of these several families, Goupia cannot be admitted into 
any of them, and it must stand as the type of a distinct group, 
which I propose to call Goupiacea, distinguished by the follow- 
ing characters : — 
Goupiace^. — Flores hermaphroditi vel subpolygami. Calyx 
parvus, 5-dentatus, dentibus sestivatione imbricatis. Petala 5, 
linearia, sestivatione introflexo-valvata, apicibus longe propen- 
den tibus introflexis. Stamina 5, libera, introrsa, brevia, cum 
petalis alterna, intra discum cupuliformem hypogyna. Ovarium 
globosum, 5-loculare; ovula plurima in quoque locido, erecta, et 
anatropa. Styli 5, subulati, breves, late segregati, subdivari- 
cati, cum dissepimentis alterni. Stigmata subnulla. Drupa 
globosa, carnosula ; nux tenuissimus, 3-4-5 -locularis, loculis 
1-2-3-sperniis. Semina erecta ; integumentum externum (aril- 
lina) carnosulum, raphigerum, raphe simplici, dorsali; integu-. 
mentum secundum testaceum, evasculosum. Albumen carnosum. 
Embryo orthotropus. Cotyledones foliacese; radicula teres, ad 
hilum spectans. 
Arbores frondosce Guianenses ; folia petiolata, paucinervia, venis 
crebris, parallelis, transversis ; stipulae subulato-lineares ; flores 
axillares, parvi, umbellati. 
On a former occasion, when discussing the question of the 
relative affinities of the Icacinacece with the Celastracece, Hippo- 
cratacece, Aquifoliacece, &c.*, and determining the position of the 
former in the system f, I exhibited in a tabular form the lead- 
ing differential features of the several families that enter into 
the Celastral alliance. I now repeat the same under a more 
synoptical form, including the Goupiacece. 
* Contrib. to Bot. i. 27-29, 50; Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser. viii. 167-169, 
ix. 220. 
t Contrib. to Bot. i. 51 ; Ann. Nat. Hist. 2 ser. ix. 221. 
