[95] 
VIII. 4 Bleies of the Natural Order Myrsinee. By M. AuPHONSE Dr 
CaNDoLLE, Honorary Professor and one of the Directors of the Botanic 
Garden at Geneva. 
Read March 5th, and April 16th, 1833. 
DURING a visit to England, with the view of assisting Dr. Wallich in the 
distribution of the great Herbarium given, since that time, by the Honourable 
East India Company to the Linnean Society, this celebrated botanist did me 
the hónour of entrusting to me the care of describing several new species col- 
lected by him, and among others, those belonging to the natural order of 
Myrsinee. My first intention was, not to extend my researches beyond the 
Indian species; but I was soon convinced that such an addition to a limited 
order like this could not be made without reviewing the whole of it, as I had 
already done in a similar case in the natural order of Anonacee*. It led me, 
of course, to a better classification. I must confess, however, that doubts still 
remain as to the precise limits of some genera, on account of the difficulty of 
ascertaining from dry specimens the number and insertion of the ovula. 
This natural order was named by Ventenat Ophiospermes, and by some 
botanists Ardisiacee ; but Mr. Brown, who in a few words in his Prodromus 
Flore Nove Hollandie threw considerable light on the subject, proposed for 
it the name of Myrsinec, which has been since generally adopted. 
Their place in the very intricate net of affinities is now well established 
between Sapotece and Primulacee, notwithstanding their remarkable analogy 
with another remote order, that of Rhamnece. Were the relative affinities of 
plants to be represented upon a sphere, as the position of islands, these different 
orders would be all under the same degree of latitude, but RAhamnec under a 
very distant longitude. 
Myrsinee differ from Sapotece by the constant deficiency of stamens alter- 
* « Mémoire sur la Famille des Anonacées, et en particulier sur celles du Pays des Birmans," in the 
Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’ Histoire Naturelle de Génvve, vol. v. 
