RS ee a ara ET Lee tay se 
LEITNERIA FLORIDANA. 87 
narrow medullary rays, scanty wood parenchyma and hard 
bast, peculiar duct pattern, simple petiolar bundle arrange- 
ment, and the venation of the leaves, count against too 
close a union of the Leitnerieae with the Dipterocarpeae,— 
a conclusion which is further strengthened by the fact that 
no existing or fossil representatives of this order are known 
from the New World. For the present, therefore, the 
order Leitnerieae will probably be maintained either in the 
position it now occupies next the Platanaceae, or, in case of 
the dismemberment of the Apetalae, near the Dipterocar- 
peae or Balsamifluae among the Polypetalae ; and on this 
point no one class of histological characters appears to be 
conclusive. * 
The peculiar lightness and softness of the Missouri cork 
wood, combined with its slight porosity, suggest that it 
should find application in the arts if, as appears to be the . 
case, it can be procured in suitable quantities for econom- 
ical working, and while its small size bars it from very 
extended use, it is possible that it may prove a useful sub- 
stitute for cork in the manufacture of bottle stoppers for 
chloroform and other gummy substances, which cause cork 
to tear badly after a little use. 
* Attention should be called here to the close affinity which Agardh, 
Brongniart and Clarke have thought they saw between the Platanaceae and 
Balsamiftuae.— On this point see Baillon, Adansonia, x. 134; Eichler, 
Bliithendiagramme, ii. 66, and, on anatomical grounds, Gris, Ann. Sci. 
Nat., ser. 5, xiv. 40, and Mémoire sur la Moelle, 267, and Reinsch, Engler’s 
Jahrb. xi. 369. But Bentham and Hooker (Genera, iii. 396) do not at 
all agree with this conclusion. 
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