Chelonespermum and Cassidispermum, pro- 
posed New Genera of Sapotaceae. 
BY 
W. B. HEMSLEY, F.R.S. 
Principal Assistant , Herbarium , Royal Gardens, Kew. 
With Plates XI, XII, XIII, and XIV. 
F OR some years past there have been some seeds of highly 
curious shape, and unknown origin, in the Kew Museum. 
It was not difficult to determine their affinity, and they were 
assigned without doubt to the Sapotaceae ; but they could not 
be identified with any described members of the order, though 
possibly the flowering condition may have been described. 
Our first knowledge of the native country of one of these 
singular productions was derived from a seed and a branch 
bearing two leaves, collected in the Fiji Islands by Mr. J. 
Horne, Director of the Department of Forests and Botanical 
Gardens, Mauritius, and sent to Kew in 1879. 
In the small botanical collection brought home last year by 
the Rev. R. B. Comins, from the Solomon Islands, were seeds 
manifestly of the same genus as those already in the Museum ; 
but as there was no flowering specimen of the tree that bore 
them, the only additional information they afforded was in re- 
lation to the area of the genus. As Mr. Comins was return- 
ing to the Solomon Islands, I particularly requested him to 
endeavour to procure specimens of this and some few other 
unusually interesting plants. He promised to do so, and has 
succeeded so far as to obtain specimens in a very late stage 
of flowering, as well as ripe fruits. He has also sent seeds of 
what is doubtless a second species of the same genus from the 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. VI. No. XXII. July, 1892.] 
P 
