60 MR. BENTHAM ON CARYOPHYLLEE. 
We would propose to restore them to FIcOIDEE, where they were 
placed by De Candolle and others, and from which they chiefly 
differ in the absence of petals. As they belong most decidedly to 
Calyciflore, which we have not as yet worked up in detail, I shall 
defer for the present any further observations on the genera they 
consist of. 
The MorrzvarNrE, also included by Fenzl among Portulacee, 
have been referred by some to Paronychiacee on account of their 
stipules, by others to Caryophyllez for their capsular fruit. They 
form a small group, however, which cannot well be attached to 
either of the allied larger orders without in some measure invali- 
dating their characters. From Caryophyllee they differ in their 
alternate stem-leaves (often apparently verticillate, but never 
really so, nor yet opposite, although the bracts may be so in a 
few cases), and in their septate ovary and capsule; from Portu- 
lace: in their isomerous calyx, septate ovary, usual want of petals, 
and habit; from Ficoideæ in habit and in their stamens usually 
hypogynous or nearly so; from Phytolaccacex, Paronychiacee, and 
other Monochlamydeous orders in the several-sceded cells of their 
ovary and fruit. They are all apetalous, except Macarthuria, Tele- 
phium, and occasionally Glinus, and do not well come in either 
with Thalamiflore or Calyciflore. We think they might be best 
placed amongst Monochlamyde next to Phytolaccacee, or even 
incorporated in that order as a tribe, bearing in some measure a 
relation to the true Phytolaccacee similar to that which Celosiee 
do to the remaining Amarantacee. 
The Paronycurace# form the link which unites Caryophyllee 
with Amarantacem. They were formerly distinguished from Ca- 
ryophyllee by the supposéd constantly perigynous insertion of 
the stamens ; but this character proving in many instances falla- 
cious, it has been proposed to take the presence of stipules as the 
ordinal distinction. That, again, separated Spergula and Spergu- 
laria from the closely allied Alsinez ; and Fenzl, A. Gray, and 
others unite the whole with Caryophyllex. It appears to me, 
however, that if we limit Paronychiacee to the genera with a 
uniovulate (although compound) ovary and utricular fruit, we 
have a distinct group, more nearly allied to Amarantacez than to 
Caryophyllez, and which, as all except Corrigiola are decidedly 
apetalous, would take its place among Monochlamy dz. 
With regard to Puyronaccaces, characterized by the ovary 
consisting of one or usually several annular uniovulate carpels, and 
to CHENOPODIACE® and AMARANTACEE, with their vague but 
