80 
monadelpha; filamentis lineari-lanceolatis, membrana- 
ceis, apice tenuiori incurvis; antheris deflexis, oblongis, 
bilocularibus, basi fixis. Discus cyathiformis, altus, car- 
nosus, 10-angularis, subplicatus. Ovarium adhærens, car- 
nosum, loculis 5, in imá basi pedunculo proximä sepul- 
tis ; ovulis 20, campylotropis, superpositis, per paria apici 
placentee axilis semiliberz affixis. Stylus pentagonus, 
angulis subalatis; stigma disciforme, pentagonum, 5-ra- 
diatum, intra angulos glandulam verruciformem (an 
verum stigma) gerens. Fructus (Mali Punici magnitu- 
dine, pulpá mucosa farctus, cortice austerá Dom Whit- 
field). Semina fab; magnitudine, reniformia, exalbu- 
minosa; cotyledonibus plano-convexis, radiculà immersä. 
In the total absence of all correct information as to the real 
structure of this curious genus, Botanists have been unable to 
arrive at any satisfactory conclusion as to its affinities. AI 
that they have been able to settle is its not belonging to 
any known natural order. 
Palisot de Beauvois stated (1807) that in the opinion of 
Jussieu, it constituted a new order between Cucurbitacee and 
Passiflorace@; a view that was probably taken in consequence 
of the double-ringed corolla, which is analogous to the 
coronet of the Passion-flowers, and the plaited corolla with an 
ler ovary, which brings to mind the flowers of the Gourd 
ribe. 
Desfontaines, on the contrary (1820), refers it, and another 
genus which he calls Asteranthus, without any doubt, to 
Symplocacee, because of its monopetalous perigynous corolla, 
lts stamens inserted in the base of the corolla, its oblong two- 
celled anthers, single style, inferior ovary, axillary solitary 
flowers, shrubby stem, and alternate leaves. : 
Him follows Dr. Robert Brown (1822), who formed it 
and Asteranthus into an order called Belvisiee, without, how- 
ever, attempting to settle its position in the natural system. 
He objected to approximating it to Symplocacez, doubted its 
affinity to Passifloraceze, and compared its structure with that 
. of Raftlesia, 
| Latterly no one seems to have attempted to suggest any- 
thing new as to its relationship. Endlicher puts it next 
Symplocacex. Meisner next Passifloracez, adding to what 
had been previously known of it, that its seeds are arillate, a 
