97 
Notes on HuwrRIACEX ; by GEonGE BENTHAM, Esa. 
The collections from Tropical America of Spruce and Schomburgk, 
having furnished several additional species belonging to the small Order 
of Humiriacee, it became necessary, in describing them, to re-examine 
all the previously known ones of which I had specimens; and as the 
result has suggested some slight modifications in the characters of some 
of them, I shall add to the following notes a short Synopsis of the whole 
Order as far as at present known. 
The Humiriacee were first established as a separate Order by Martius 
in his ‘ Nova Genera et Species’ (vol. ii. p. 142), who pointed out their 
. general affinity in the first instance with the Styracee (especially Sym- 
plocos), and next, though more remotely, with the Meliacee. Neither 
the discovery of additional species, nor any of the more recent specula- 
tions on the subject, have improved upon the affinities indicated in the 
above-mentioned work. 
The more or less dilated petioles, the form and consistence of the 
leaves, the cymose inflorescence, and the shape of the flowers, give a pe- 
` culiar habit to the group, which strikes one at the first glance. On a 
closer examination it is accurately and readily defined by the short cup- 
shaped five-lobed or five-toothed calyx, the narrow, slightly imbricated, 
and very deciduous petals, the stamens more or less united at the base, 
the filaments much tapered at the summit, the versatile anthers with a 
thick fleshy connectivum projecting beyond the cells in the form of a 
cone, the cup-shaped disc or scales round the ovary, and the five-celled 
ovary with one or two pendulous ovules in each cell and crowned by a 
simple style terminating in a more or less distinctly five-lobed radiating : 
stigma. P 
The fruit in all cases where it is known is a drupe, of which the pe- _ 
ricarp is often edible, the endocarp forms a hard bony or woody puta- 
men, divided into as many cells as there are seeds developed (for most - 
of the ovules are usually abortive), each seed being attached to the top 
or near the top of the cell and completely filling the cavity, the testa is 
thin and brittle, the albumen whitish and almost cartilaginous, the 
embryo axile and linear, with a rather long radicle directed upwards. xou 
The number of genera, distinguished from each other solely by the i 
number of stamens, remains, as established by Martius, — "o 
VOL. V. 
