in botany; a genus of the monogynia order, and of the pentandria clas of plants. The characters are these: the cup is an extremely small perianthium, divided into five segments, and remains after the flower is fallen; the flower consists of a single petal, with almost no tube, the margin of which is divided into five acute oval segments; the stamens are five filaments of the length of the flower; the anther simple; the germen of the pistil is oval and pointed; the style is slender and slightly bifid, its ramifications are also bifid; this is of the same length with the stamens, and remains when the flower is fallen; the stigmaata are simple; the fruit is an oval and pointed capsule, standing on a large cup, made up of five long segments emarginated or rimmed round their edges; the seeds of this plant are yet unknown; but the construction of the cup, in which the capsule stands, is alone a sufficient distinction for this genus. There is but a single species.