290 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
scribed and figured. Its chief peculiarity consists in its mona- 
delphous stamens in the flower, the central column being 
divided, near its summit, into two or three antheriferous forks ; 
its sepals vary in number from two to five; its petals are three 
to five, longer than the sepals, extremely fleshy, and tumidly 
scrotiform : the $ flower has four, small, denticulated, subrhom- 
boidal sepals, four or five, much larger, very fleshy, scrotiform 
petals, with as many shorter sterile stamens attached to their 
claws ; three to six ovaries, with a deeply 2-3-fid reflected stigma; 
subglobose drupes, with a reniformly orbicular, compressed, 
testaceous putamen, having externally on each side a semicir- 
cular excentric impression, and an internal condyle that intrudes 
a short distance within the reniform eell, and which is hollow, 
with a minute foramen opening externally on each side ; each 
face of the outer broad hippocrepiform ring is covered with 
about seven rows of close, prominent, short tubercles. The 
seed has a membranaceous integument that fills the cell, with a 
broad chalaza near the condyle, to which it is attached : the 
nucleus of the only seed I was able to examine was not fully 
developed ; it evidently contained albumen, as Dr. Mueller 
affirms ; but the form of the embryo was not visible : from this 
circumstance, coupled with the similarity in form of the con- 
dyle and the shape of the cell, and the resemblance of the integu- 
ment, to those in Legnephora and Tristichocalyx, I have placed 
this genus in contiguity to them, all being of Australian origin. 
The details of the ^ flower, which I have not seen, ai’e copied 
from the description of Dr. Mueller. 
Sarcopetalum, F. Mueller. — Flores dioici. Masc. Sepala 2-5, 
parva, membranacea, biseriata, exteriora minora. Petala 3-5, 
sepalis majora, insequalia, valde crassa et carnosa, subcuneata, 
obovata, apice sub-2-loba vel scrotiformia. Stamina 3, mona- 
delpha ; filarnenta in columnam centralem alte coalita, apice 
breviter furcata et antherifera ; antherce bilobse, lobis ovalibus, 
parallele segregatis, vel imo divergentibus, dorso adnatis, 
subextrorsis, sutura oblique longitudinali utrinque dehiscen- 
tibus. — Foem. Sepala 4-6, parva, biseriata, exteriora paulo 
minora, rhomboidea vel acute triangularia, plus minusve pro- 
funde inciso-dentata, membranacea, delicatule reticulata, gla- 
bra. Petala 4-6, sepalis longiora, forma scrotata marium, 
carnosa, glabra. Stamina s^en/iaeadem numero ac petala, iis op- 
posita et dimidio breviora,linearia,imo latiora, apice glandulis 2 
segregatis munita. Oi;ana 3-6, gibboso-o vata, glabra, gynsecio 
paulo elevato insita. Stylus teres, subito reflexus, apice in 
stigmata 2 divaricata subulata profunde divisus. Drupce 3 
(vel plurimae ?), gibboso-ovatse, compressae, stylo fere basali 
