Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/617

Descriptions of Plants.] tres uncias lata. Petioli teretiusculi cinerascentes semunciales. Stipula intrafoliacea conduplicata lanceolata acuminata foliacea. Pedunculi axillares solitarii, brevissimi, androgyni, pedicellis 6–8 alternis, infimo femineo præcociore, reliquis masculis. Involucrum subcyathiforme apice multifido, laciniis imbricatis acutis ciliatis conniventibus, demum expansum orbiculare marginibus reflexis, diametro quinquelineari. Flosculi numerosi densé conferti sessiles. Calyx 4-ph. foliolis subspathulatis apice conniventibus. Corolla 0. Antheræ biloculares: Pollen album. Nullum rudimentum pistilli. Involucrum uniflorum ovatum parvum glabrum viride apice multifidum, laciniis numerosis lanceolatis ciliatis conniventibus, nunnullisque dorsalibus sparsis similibus. Calyx 0. Stamina 0. Ovarium accretum et inclusum ventre involucri, monospermum, ovulo pendulo: Stylus profundè bifidus, laciniis filiformibus elongatis albicantibus glabris: Stigmata acuta. Drupa ex involucro aucto efformatum, ovalis glabra, magnitudine pruni domestici minoris, nigro-sanguinea, substantia carnosa crassa lactescente intus flavicante, lacte albo; putamine ovato crustaceo tenaci lævi fusco. Integumentum seminis præter putamen nullum. Albumen nullum. Embryo dicotyledoncus albus: Cotyledones maximæ amygdalino-carnosæ ovatæ plano-convexæ: Radicula supera brevissima.

Obs. When I collected and described this plant on the north coast of New Holland, I had no reason to suppose it had any affinity to the Upas Antiar or Poison tree of Java, of which the first satisfactory account has been since published by Mr. Leschenault. There can however be no doubt that the plant of New Holland belongs to the same genus with Antiaris toxicaria of that author, notwithstanding some difference between our accounts of the structure of the male flowers; with respect to which I have only to observe that my description was taken from living plants, and I consider its correctness to be very much confirmed by the figure, which was afterwards made from dried specimens, by Mr. Bauer, who was unacquainted with my observations. Antiaris evidently belongs to Urticeæ, and in a natural series will stand between Brosimum of Swartz and Olmedia of Flora Peruviana, agreeing with the latter in the structure of its male flowers, and more nearly resembling the former in its female flowers and fruit.