MR. G. JBENTHAM ON MTRTACE.f:. 163 



which IS a true Eugenia of the section St/zijgium (that is to say, it 

 has the Syzi/gium inflorescence and calyx): this has usually 4 small 

 petals, with the occasional addition of an inner series of still 

 smaller ones; and I have always found them free, and separately 

 deciduous ; M. Mueller, however, who has published the species 

 under the name of Byzygium floribundum^ has observed them to be 

 sometimes coherent : in reducing it, with other Syzygia^ to Eugenia^ 

 I have not been able to keep up the specific name oi florihunda^ 

 preoccupied in the larger genus, and 1 have entered it in the 

 ^ Flora Australiensis' under that of E. Ventenatii, 3. Eugenia 

 elliptica, Sm., which is Acmena florihunda /3. elUpiica, DC, and is 

 in every respect a Syzygmm with the petals always united in a 

 small flat calyptra. This species, with very much the habit of 

 E, Ventenatii^ is remarkable for its anthers with divaricate cells 

 a solitary exception, as far as hitherto observed, in the whole vast 

 genus Eugenia, and -« hich in this instance appears to have been 

 overlooked by all botanists except F. Mueller. Here, again, I 

 have been unable to keep up the original specific name, which 

 was preoccupied, and have given it that of .E'. SmifJiii, 



Strong ylocalyx^ Blume, founded on the shape of the calyx-tube, 

 appears to me to belong to those species of the Jamhosa section 

 which DeCandoUe had placed in Eugenia on accoimt of the 

 short broad adnate part of the tube; Miquel now places it in 

 Eugenia, though it has the highly developed free part of the 

 calyx-tube characteristic of his Jamhosa. GeljpTcea, Blume, is in 

 this respect rather nearer Eugenia as understood by Miquel, but 

 was characterized by Blume as having the calyx-lobes strictly 

 valvate. I have seen no specimens ; but from Blame's figure 

 I feel convinced that there is here a misapprehension, like that 

 of the same author in his character of LeptospermitMy and that, 

 although the aestivation is open when the bud is ready to expand, 

 it is imbricate at an earlier stage, at any rate not valvate. Miquel, 

 in referring the species to Eugenia, says that the calyx-lobes are 

 separated by a broad sinus. 



Eugenia alternifolia, Wight, Ic. t. 537, is remarkable as the 

 only species known in the vast tribe of Eumyrteaj with alternate 

 leaves. It was by some mistake that in the ' Genera Plantarum ' 

 we referred to it as a Jamhosa with a calyptrate calyx: the oper- 

 culum is formed of the petals ; and the species \^ correctly ranked 

 by "Wight in the Syzygium section. 



Turning now to the genera which we include in the section 

 Eueugenia, Plinia, Linn., was founded upon the well-known Eu- 



m2 



