MU. G. BENTHAM ON MYHTACE.K. 107 



Secondly, it would, I think, be no difficult matter to trace the 

 gradual disconnexion of the various whorls through nearly allied 

 plants of these and adjoining orders. In many Myrtacea? where 

 the union at first appears the most perfect, a vertical section will 

 show three more or less distinct layers — the ovary inside, sur- 

 rounded by the staminal disk, to which I shall presently revert, 

 and the calyx-tube outside. In a few capsular Myrtaceae, and in 

 many Melastomacea), the connexion of the ovary is imperfect; or 

 only along the midribs of the carpellary leaves. In many capsular 

 Myrtaceae the ovary, especially when the flowering is past, de- 

 taches itself in drying. In some dried specimens of Eucalypti, I 

 have found the three layers (calyx-tube, staminal disk, and ovary) 

 quite detached from each other by desiccation. In a few species 

 of SwcJcea^ Tristania^ Xantliostemumj &c., as in a large number of 

 Melastomacea?, the ovary is quite free although closely enclosed in 

 the cup, and in all cases the insertion of the gyna^cium is within 

 the cup at its base. Even in those few apocarpous genera (such 

 as _Bo5a, several species of HaiiJiinia, and some other Ca^salpinieae) 

 Avhere the carpels appear to be inserted on the sides of the cup, 

 their stalks proceed from its base, and are evidently adnate only 

 to the sides, where they form so many prominent ribs. 



It is in Lythrariea? especially that we can observe the gradual 

 liberation of the stamens from the cup. Almost throughout the 

 Order they are inserted at various heights below the petals, some- 

 times quite at its base, often below the middle ; and the filaments 

 below the apparent insertion are either blended with the substance 

 of the cup or are more or less distinct as veins or prominent ribs. 



The petals in the same Order almost always appear inserted on the 

 margin of the cup between the calyx-lobes ; the cup or calyx-tube 

 then becomes strictly analogous to the corolla- tube of those ga- 

 mopetalous flowers in which the stamens alternate with the corolla- 

 lobes at the orifice of the tube. 



In Groodenoviese we can equally well trace the gradual liberation 

 of the corolla-tube from the cup or calyx-tube on the one hand 

 and from the ovary and androecium on the other. In Sccevola and 

 Dampiera they are all closely adnate to the ovary in one mass, and 

 immediately above the ovary all are free from each other ; in some 

 species, however, as in a few Myrtaceae, the ovary, especially 

 "when the flowering is past, detaches itself in drying. In Goodenia 

 the summit of the ovary is more or less free, according to the 

 species, the base of the corolla-tube is adnate to the lower portion 

 of the ovary — the remainder of the corolla on falling off with the 



