80 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
I will therefore venture, in a few words, to show the differences 
existing between Abuta and Anelasma. There exists among the 
individuals forming these groups a very different habit, a notably 
distinct appearance in their leaves, and a dissimilar character in 
their inflorescence — features so striking as to render it almost 
impossible, with a mere glance at the plants, to mistake one 
genus for the other. In Abuta the midrib of the leaves beneath, 
as well as the lateral ramifications, have e.xternally strong, pro- 
minent, pinnate nervures, which are absent in Anelasma-, the 
leaves are all densely tomentose beneath, with a few exceptions, 
where they become glabrous with age ; but even in that case 
the distinction is maintained by the branches, petioles, and ra- 
cemes, which are thickly tomentose, while in Anelasma the same 
})arts are quite glabrous. In Abuta the inner sepals are exter- 
nally sericeous, very fleshy, and valvate in aestivation ; in Ane- 
lasma the corresponding sepals are glabrous, more membrana- 
ceous in texture, and (though slightly) are decidedly imbricated 
in aestivation. In Abuta, in the male flower, each stamen bears 
a 2-lobed anther, the lobes separated from one another by a 
deep longitudinal channel or by a broader interval, and attached 
by their entire length to a broad filament ; each lobe opens late- 
rally by a vertical or oblique fissure : in Anelasma each stamen 
bears only a single globular anther, apicifixed upon, and half 
immersed in, the summit of a broad fleshy filament, burst- 
ing across its apex by a transverse gaping fissure into two 
valves, antical and postical, and divided inside by a sep- 
tum parallel to the valves, as is well shown in Poppig’s figure. 
In the female flower of Anelasma, the structure of the sterile 
^ stamens is different : the ovaries are quite glabrous, with a 
different stigma, while in Abuta and Butschia the ovaries are 
densely pilose; the drupes in the two latter cases are thickly 
tomentose, while iri Anelasma they are quite glabrous. In the 
case of larger flowers, such differences as I have indicated would 
not fail to be recognized in their full importance; and there can 
be no justification for ignoring them, or considering them as 
too trivial, on account of diminutive size. Here assuredly 
there is sufficient evidence to show that Anelasma ought not to 
be confounded with Abuta ; but other dififerences w'ill be seen 
when we come to speak of Anelasma. 
Until lately, I had maintained Batschia as an independent 
genus, distinguished from Abuta by its stamens, which are 
rigidly hispid, while the small globular cells of the anthers are 
separated by a much wider interval, and laterally imbedded in 
a very thick filament, sometimes so deeply as to be invisible 
from the front ; and, furthermore, the species have glabrous 
leaves. As these characters sometimes run into one another, I 
