52 
RHAMNACEJE. 
[ Colubrina . 
style trifid. Fruit a 3-celled capsule, with septicidal dehiscence 
and oue large triquetrous seed in each cell. — Erect or climbing un- 
armed shrubs, with alternate leaves and copious minute flowers in 
axillary cymes. Distrib. Species 10, the others all American. 
1. C. asiatica, Brong. in Ann. Sc. flat. x. 369. An erect or 
trailing unarmed shrub, with glabrous terete branches. Leaves short- 
petioled, alternate, ovate, acute, membranous, 2-3 in. long, faintly 
toothed, rounded at the base. Flowers in copious sessile axillary 
cymes. Calyx ^ in. deep; teeth as long as the tube. Petals not 
exceeding the calyx-teeth. Fruit a glabrous capsule, as large as a pea, 
finally splitting into three valves, with membranous septa and three 
large triquetrous seeds. Ceanothus asiaticus, Linn. ; DC. Prod. ii. 30. 
Common in the Seychelles. Flat Island, Horne ! Mauritius, on the seashore at 
the bay of the Petite Riviere Noire, etc., introduced. Polynesia, Tropical Asia. 
Home’s 586, from the Seychelles, frequent in woods in Mahe, with alternate short- 
petioled membranous entire acute leaves half a foot long, of which the flowers have 
not yet been procured, may be a second species of Colubrina. 
3. GOUANIA, Linn. 
Flowers polygamous. Calyx-tube obconical, adnate to the ovary ; 
teeth 5, deltoid. Petals 5, oblong unguiculate, hooded, not exceeding 
the calyx-teeth. Stamens 5, enfolded in the petals. Ovary inferior, 3- 
celled ; stigma trifid ; stigmas capitate. Disk epigynous, pentagonal. 
Fruit a three-winged capsule, the valves finally separating septicidally 
from the axis. — Climbing shrubs, with alternate penninerved leaves, 
woody spirally-curved tendrils from the axils of the upper leaves and 
minute flowers in long racemes. Distrib. Pound the world in the 
tropics. Species 30. 
Leaves only silky when young on the main veins beneath 1. G. tillefolia. 
Leaves persistently silky on both surfaces . 2. G. Mauritian a. 
1. G. tilisefolia, Lam.; DC. Prod. ii. 40. A climbing shrub, 
with young branches only and veins of the leaf below rusty-pilose. 
Stipules and bracts similar, minute, brown, lanceolate, caducous. 
Leaves short-petioled, cordate-ovate, 2-4 in. long, inciso-crenate, soon 
naked on both sides. Flower-raceme close, 2-4 in long, with a densely 
pilose axis ; pedicels fascicled, i n - l° n g* Expanded flower £ 
in. broad ; sepals deltoid, pilose on the outside. Disk acutely pen- 
tagonal. Petals whitish, shorter than sepals. Ovary globose, naked, 
crowned by the persistent disk. Capsule hard, naked, J-f in. broad, 
deeply triquetrous, with thick wings \ in. broad. G. retinaria, DC. 
Prod. ii. 40. G. Stadtmanni, Willd. Eetinaria scandens, Gcertn. 
Mauritius, in woods of Grandport, Savanne, etc. Rodriguez, not common, 
Balfour ! , Also Bourbon. Liane Charretiers. 
