♦ 



+ 



Candolle and his followers. In A. longiflora, cynanchica, 

 and some others, the lower whorls are in the usual state, but 

 the upper ones are reduced to tw^o perfect leaves, with one 

 or sometimes two teeth or subulate processes between them, 

 the branches continuing to be produced from the leaves 

 which remain. In this condition the structure of Asperula 

 is so very like that of many Spermacoceous plants that the 

 analogy between them seems indisputable, and I presume 

 that it was such cases which first led to the theory under 

 consideration. 



It is however to be remembered that in Galiaceae the sup- 

 posed stipules are always what first disappear in the process 

 of reduction in the number of foliaceous appendages ; but 

 that in Cinchonaceae it is in many cases the leaves which 

 are first lost when such a reduction takes place. The latter 

 fact is readily verified upon reference to any of the capitate 

 Spermacoces where the bracts are evidently stipules, and 

 especially to Sp. calyptera, in which the leaves are gradually 

 merged in the laro^e membrauous cup that subtends the 



flowers, while the stipules suffer no diminution. ^ The same 

 circumstance may be observed in several Brazilian Cincho- 

 naceae allied to Psychotria barbiflora, and in Paederia foetid a. 

 It is also possible that the large coloured involucrum of 

 Cephaelis is, at least in some cases, formed by the excessive 

 developement of stipules and suppression of the leaves ; 

 for such is undoubtedly the case in a Sierra Leone plant in 

 my possession, which I presume is the little known C. biden- 

 tata of Thunberg. These facts render it more probable than 

 ever that Galiacese and Cinchonaceae are essentially different 

 Natural Orders ; for they would seem to shew that while the 

 first has verticillate foliaceous organs, the most imperfect of 

 which have the greater tendency to disappear ; the second 

 has verticillate foliaceous organs, the most perfect of which 

 have the greater tendency to become abortive. 



I need scarcely add that after a full consideration of this 

 point I retain my original conviction, that the apparent 

 leaves of GaliaceaB are really leaves, and not stipules ; and 

 that the order is as distinct from Cinchonaceae, as Solanaceae 

 from Scrophulariaceae, Verbenaceae from Lamiaceae ; and I 

 might even add as Cinchonaceae themselves from Apiaceae 



Umbelliferae 



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