53 



RetmrJcs on PASSiFLORACEiE and Tuiinekace.^ ; by Berthold 



Seemann, Ph.D., P.L.S. 



All botanists consider Turneracecs and Passifloracece as allied to each 

 other, but few seem to be aware that these Orders are so closely rekted 

 as they really are, that the differences between them are merely imagi- 

 nary, that in fact they constitute one and the same natural family of 

 plants, r was led to this conclusion by the discovery of the American 

 genus Erbliclda^ Seem., — figured in plate xxvii. of the * Botany of 

 H.M.S. Herald,' — and by subsequent examination of several Turne- 



racers. 



All TurneracecB are described in systematic works as " Herbaceous 

 plants, having sometimes a tendency to become shrubby." This de- 



salicifolia 



Hindsiana^ Benth.! CorcJiorm grandijli 



from 6-8 feet high, and ErblicJda odorata. Seem., is a good-sized tree, 

 often attaininsr a height of 30 feet or more. The leaves are said to be 



O " ^'^"^'O 



exstipulate, — another mistatement, as all Turneracece have stipules. 

 In Turnera ulmifolia^ Linn., — a common hot-house plant, from which 

 solely most authors seem to have derived their knowledge of this group, 

 ■they are, on account of the hairy covering of the stem, hardly visible, 

 but in the more glabrous species, such as T. salicifolia^ St. Hih, they 

 are plainly to be seen, and in Erblichia odorata. Seem., they are still 

 more manifest. The calyx is, in Turnera and Piriqueta, monophyllous, 

 in Erblichia pentaphylloua. The latter is doubtless the normal state of 

 the calyx of the Order; for if the calyx of the two former is examined, 

 it will be found that its lobes are in fact true sepals, traceable to the 

 very base, and but slightly connected with each other. The petals and 

 stamens are stated to be inserted into the tube of the calyx, but if ex- 

 amined closely they wiU be found, although attached to the calyx, to 

 be traceable to the stalk of the ovary. In Erblichia, which has no 

 calycinal tube, and where the petals and stamens are free to their very 

 base, this mode of insertion becomes still more apparent. Indeed, if 

 the insertion was different from what I have stated it to be, we should 

 have to remove Tur^ierace<B from their hypogynous alUances, where they 

 now stand, and place them among the pcrigynous orders, with which 

 they seem to have no connection,— a change which those who follow 

 the views of Lindley, as laid down in his 'Vegetable Kingdom/ would 



