68 mr. a. bentiiam: on anonace^. 



species I have seen, although in some few instances the outer petals 

 are scarcely imbricate at the tips, or perhaps truly valvate. In 

 the Asiatic species referred to Guatteria, the petals, wherever I 

 have been able to observe them, are strictly valvate, as described 

 in the ' Flora Indica ;' but in most cases they open out at so very 

 early a stage, when the bud is still exceedingly small, that it is 

 difficult to find specimens showing the true aestivation. In this 

 respect, as in most others, these Asiatic Guatterias agree with 

 Polyalthia, as limited in the ' Flora Indica,' only differing in there 

 being but one instead of two ovules in each carpel — a difference 

 not consdered as generic in the allied genus Popoivia (perhaps 

 itself a section of Polyalthia), nor in Phceanthus and some others. 

 "We think therefore that these Asiatic species rejected from Guat- 

 teria may well be considered as forming a section of Polyalthia. 



The West Indian genus Oxandra has the petals very strongly 

 imbricate in the bud, and belongs therefore to Uvariece, next to 

 Guatteria, although, by some inadvertence, Grisebach, in his 

 recently-published Flora of the British West Indian Islands, has 

 followed previous writers in supposing their aestivation to be 

 valvate. 



Duguetia belongs also to TJvariea?. It is indeed the only Ameri- 

 can genus in which the imbricate aestivation had been observed. 

 It should, however, include the Anona furfuracea, A. de St.-Hil., 

 which has not only the lepidote surface and imbricate petals of 

 other Duguetias, but the fruit, which had induced its reference to 

 Anona, has not the carpels more united than occurs in some 

 other Duguetias, and they are much less so than in any Anona 

 whose fruit I have seen. 



Asimina, a North American genus, has, like several Unonea, 

 the petals open at so early a stage of their growth, that their true 

 aestivation had not been well observed on the very few flowers 

 which herbarium specimens generally show ; A. Gray has, however, 

 recently ascertained that they are truly valvate ; and the genus 

 therefore belongs to the true Unonece, and indeed is very near to 

 JJnona itself, and ought perhaps to be united to that section of 

 the latter genus which have the ripe carpels ovoid and continuous, 

 not constricted between the seeds as in most Unonas. We do not 

 know, however, whether the Asiatic species have the arillate seeds 

 attributed to the American ones. 



Porcelia, from South America, united by some with Asimina, 

 appears to be nearer allied to Uvaria proper ; but the specimens at 

 Kew are not in a sufficiently perfect state to ascertain its charac- 

 ters with precision. The aestivation of the petals, both inner and 



