18 DR- M. T. MASTERS ON THE MORPHOLOGT OF THE MALYALKS . 



success which appears to be resting on this great and arduous 

 national undertaking, and my desire that the cultivator should 

 not rest on any one species exclusively, but that a wise selection 

 should be made of those which have been proved to be most ad- 

 vantageous, and that all the remaining species which promise 

 well should by degrees be added to those now under cultivation. 



On some points in the Morphology of the Malvales, together with 

 a desoirij)tion of a new genus of SttettneriecB, By M. T. 



MASTE*bs, M.D., F.L.S, &c. 



(Plates II. and III.) 

 [Eead Dec. 20, 1866.] 



I 



Having, through the kindness of Dr. Hooker and Prof. Oliver, 

 been entrusted with the task of working up the UlalvacecB and 

 allied Orders of tropical Africa, I have necessarily had to examine 

 the structure of the flowers in a large number of the genera of 

 these Orders, The floral arrangements are so peculiar, that they 

 have attracted great attention on the part of morphologists, and 

 they are so distinctive that there has been very little difference of 

 opinion among systematists as to the intimate relationship existing 

 between the various members of the group. "While some botanists 

 have classified the plants in question under the heads of several j 

 families, e. g,Malvacece, Somhace^^, Sterctiliacece, JSuettneriacecej &c., 

 others have combined them into fewer and larger groups, as has 

 been done by Bentham and Hooker Q Gen. Plant.' i. p. ix*), who, 

 imder the head of their " Cohors YI. Malvales/' include three 

 orders, viz. Malvacece, Sterculiacece, and Tiliacece^ a group corre- 

 sponding to Lindley's Malval alliance, but improved by the removal 

 of Trop(Bolace(je and VivianacecB, 



Although, for convenience' sake, it may be desirable to retain the 

 Order Sterculiacece as distinct from Malvacece, yet the two groups 

 are so intimately connected in their morphological construction 



that it is hardly possible to comprehend the peculiar structural 

 arrangements of the one, without comparing them with the cor- 

 responding parts in the other. 



ISIoreover the one-celled anthers of Mallowrproper really afford 



w - . ^ - 



J 



* See also Bentham in Journ. of Linn. See. 1862, vol. vi. p. 97; and Boc- 

 •quillon, *^Sur le Groupo dea Tiliaeees/ p. 46 (Adansonia, vol. vii. p. 17). 



