131 
natural Family of Plants called Composite. 
ovulo ovato pendulo, paulo infra apicem affixo funiculo crassi- 
usculo ex ipso apice angustato cavitatis orto; chorda vascu- 
lari a puncto insertionis ad extremitatem inferiorem ejusdem 
lateris attingenti. Stylus filiformis glaber, inferne cum basi 
tubi corollas connatus. Stigma simplex obtusum hispidulum. 
Flosculi superiores numerosi hermaphrodito-masculi, paulo minores 
liermaphroditis,calycis laciniis submembranaceis; ovariis (pari- 
ter connatis) imperfectis, soepius absque ovulo. 
Pericarpia (flosculorum ambit&s): Achenia conferruminata, sin¬ 
gula coronata calyce aucto 5-spinoso, spinis patulis conico- 
subulatis e substantia suberosa axi solidiori rigida. 
Semen pendulum, ovatum extremitate superiore acuminato : testa 
niembranacea: membrana propria nucleo adhaerens. Albumen 
figura seminis, carnosum, copiosum, album. Embryo axilis, 
subcylindraceus, longitudine fere albuminis, albus, dicotyledo- 
neus. Cotyledones lineares, obtusae,,plano-convexee, vix longitu¬ 
dine Radiculce cylindracese, superae. 
Notwithstanding the great difference between my account of 
this plant and that given by M. de Jussieu of his Acicarplia tribu - 
loides , I have very little doubt that they both belong to the same 
genus; though from the above description it is evident that Aci- 
carpha spathulata is not referable to Compositae. To this plant 
Calycera of Cavanilles, in the seeds of which M. Correa has found 
albumen, seems to be very nearly related ; and a third genus, 
probably referable to this group, is Boopis , described by M. de 
Jussieu in the same Memoir with Acicarplia. The important 
characters, however, of the pendulous ovulum and inverted em¬ 
bryo remain to be ascertained in all these; and the presence 
of albumen in Acicarplia iribuloides (in Acicarplia lanata of La- 
gasca in Pers. Syn. ii. p. 488, if it really belong to this genus), and 
s 2 in 
