CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
205 
fruit baccate, 4-lobed, depressed, with four nuts, as in the 
generic diagnosis. 
2. Messerschmidtia Martii, nob. ; — Toumefortia Martii, Fresen. 
in Mart. FI. Bras. xix. p. 55 ; — subscandens, ramis teretibus, 
subglabris, in junioribus sparse pilosulis ; foliis oblongis, 
imo rotundatis, gradatim angustatis, acutis, membranaceis, 
supra densius, subtus sparse strigoso-pilosis, pilis e tuberculis 
albis et adpressis ; petiolo tenuissimo, pilosulo, limbo 8-plo 
breviore : paniculis axiUaribus, laxis, bis dichotomis aut 
subpentastachyis, ramis subcompressis, valde divaricatis, 
pubescentibus, ultimis spicatifloris ; floribus sessilibus, 
1-serialibus, puberulis. — In Brasilia, prov. Bahia et Espirito 
Santo : v. s. in herh. meo (Rio Ilheos, Mart.). 
A plant 10-20 feet high, with scandent or weak straggling 
branches scarcely a line in thickness, with axils 6-9 lines 
apart ; leaves 2-3^ inches long, 1-1 f inch broad, on a very 
slender petiole 2^-3 lines long ; peduncle 8 lines long, with 
two divaricating arms 5 lines long, each bearing two or three 
floriferous spikes 1| inch long, with about ten or twelve some- 
what distant flowers ; sepals 1^ line long ; tube of corolla 
2 lines long, swollen below the mouth, segments nan-ow, 
1 line long, with introflected margins ; anthers cohering by 
their barbated summits ; ovary glabrous, subglobular, dis- 
tinctly 4-lobed ; style swollen at its apex by a crenulated 
annular ring ; stigma short, conical and papillose. 
3. Messerschmidtia Organensis, nob. ; — scandens, ramis pen- 
dentibus, flexuosis, fistulosis, angulato-compressis, glaber- 
rimis ; foliis oblongis, imo rotundatis, acute acuminatis, 
membranaceis, utrinque glaberrimis, marginibus subrevo- 
lutis ; petiolo glabro, canahculato, limbo 8-plo breviore ; 
axillis plerisque floriferis : panicuhs supra-axillaribus, foliis 
paulo longioribus, glaberrimis, longe et tenuiter peduncu- 
latis, ebracteatis, altematim ramosis, ramis laxis, tenuibus, 
spicatifloris ; floribus remotiuscuhs, breviter pedicellatis ; 
sepalis et lobis coroUas longe subulatis. — In Brasilia, prov. 
Rio de Janeiro : v. v. ad Imbuliy in montibus Organensibus. 
I found this very distinct species in 1838, growing in virgin 
forests. The axils are 1:^1 1 inch apart ; the leaves are 2^-3 
inches long, 10-13 lines broad, on a petiole 4-5 lines long. 
The panicles are always supra-axillary, 2^-3 inehes long, com- 
pletely glabrous, on a slender naked peduncle 1-1^ i^ch long, 
bearing eight or ten alternate slender patent spicated branches 
6-9 lines long. The terminal panicle is pyramidal, 6 inches 
long, and compound, consisting of a great many alternate 
