CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
123 
the six sepals. The authors of the ‘ Flora Indica’ declare that 
Loureiro’s specimen above mentioned is clearly identical with 
Pericampylus mcanus. As far as regards the leaves, I admit that 
there is much resemblance, but not so in the character of the 
inflorescence, its vei’y short panicle being very dilferent from the 
widely spread umbellate inflorescence of Pericampylus incanus ; 
its sepals are pilose on both sides, its petals being only one-fifth 
of their length ; the stamens are confluent for more than half 
their length in a monadelphous column, the union of the three 
more central being continued to nearly their summit ; the fila- 
ments are not clavate at the apex ; and the anthers are differently 
constructed. If the union of the stamens had been continued 
up to the anthers, Loureiro’s specimen would not have differed 
from a Stephania ; and had they been disunited to the base, 
it would have been a Pericampylus. Under these circumstances, 
although I confess the difference is small, I should not be justi- 
fied in abolishing Loureiro's genus. In many other genera of 
the family a similar feature gives one of their chief distinctive 
characters : in the union of three of its six filaments into a cen- 
tral column we have a parallel in Coscinium ; in Triclisia, its six 
stamens are combined together for half or a third of their length ; 
while in Detandra and Syrrlwnema, each with only three 
stamens, these are united together for more than half their 
length. 
PsELiuM, Lour. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 6, spathulato- 
oblonga, basi longe unguiculata, 2-serialia, 3 exteriora paulo 
minora, utrinque pilosa. Petala 6, glabra, sepalis quinto 
breviora, spathulato-oblonga, lateribus inflexis, subauriculatis, 
summo ineurvata. Stamina 6, sequalia; filamenta teretia, ul- 
tra medium in columnam centralem monadelpham coalita, 
3 interiora fere ad apicem conj uneta ; antherce subglobosse, 
subquadrilobse, subextrorsum apicifixae, utrinque rima trans- 
versali dehiscentes. — Fl.foem. ignoti. 
Frutex scandens, Cochinchinensis, pubescens; folia reniformia, 
5-nervia ; petiolus tenuis ; paniculae bin/e, supra-axillares, pe- 
tiolo multo breviores. 
Pselium ambiguum, nob. ; — Pselium heterophyllum. Lour. Coch. 
ii. 762; — ramulis tenuibus, pubescentibus; foliis reniformi- 
orbicularibus vel subdeltoideis, imo vix cordatis, apice rotun- 
datis, emarginatis et mucronatis, 5-nerviis, supra parce pu- 
berulis, subtus pallidis, sublucidis, puberulis ■ petiolo limbo 
dimidio breviore ; paniculis binis vel ternis, axillaribus, petiolo 
brevioribus. — Cochinchina, v. s. in herb. Mus. Brit. (Loureiro). 
The plant has greatly the habit and general appearance of 
B 2 
