54 DR. HOOKEE AND DB. THOMSON'S PB^CUBSOEES 



FrcBCursores ad Floram Indicam. By J. D. Hookeb, Esq., M.D., 

 E.RS. & L.S., and T. Thomson, Esq., M.D., E.R.S. & L.S. 



(Continued from page 29.) 



Seeies II. Saxifeaoe^ (including Hydrcmgece, &c.), Ceassu- 

 LACE^, Deoseeace^, Pabnassie^, Geosstjlaeieje, Hama- 

 MELiDE^, and Philadelphe^. 

 The Orders here grouped together appear to us to stand in 

 more immediate connexion with one another than with any other 

 Indian Orders, and to be intimately connected with Cornew and its 

 allies on the one hand, and Mosacece on the other. Erom Cornece 

 and its allies they differ much in the structure and number of their 

 ovules, which are numerous, except in some HamamelidecBj and in 

 their less constant characters of the carpels being partially free 

 from one another and from the calyx or apex of the peduncle, the 

 rarely valvate floral envelopes, and the more numerous stamens. 

 Erom BosacecB they are less definitely though more naturally 

 separated, and the Himalayan genera Neillia and Astilbe form a 

 very close connecting link between these Orders. Of these, 

 Neillia may safely be referred to Saxifragece ; and Astilbe must, 

 technically, fall into Saxifragece also, though its relationship to 

 Spircea is all but generic. JPolgosma, appended by Brown and 

 Bennett to JEscalloniecB, presents the strongest resemblance to 

 GornecB in many respects. 



We have endeavoured to give a conspectus of these Orders, 

 with their diagnostic characters drawn from the Indian genera, 

 from which it wiH be seen, that though all of them are very natural 

 groups, they are to a great extent undistinguishable by characters. 

 Saxifragece, by being made to include the fruticose genera Adamia, 

 Hgdrangea, Itea, and Folyosma, has a very different value from 

 the succeeding Orders, which are all of them as naturally parts of 

 SaxifragecB as many of the genera included under it are. Fhila- 

 delp}ie(jd might without violence be brought next to Hydrangea ; 

 Farnassia, though exalbuminous, is nearly related to Saxifraga 

 itself, as indicated by Brown and others, and displays the same 

 singular economy of the stamens advancing by pairs to the stig- 

 mata, the same texture of its persistent petals, and a habit so 

 similar, that when in the Himalaya, their close af&nity appeared to 

 us self-evident. Hamamelidece might be brought under Cunonice, 

 the remarkable stipules of BucMandia finding an exact homologue 

 in Cunonia itself, whilst amongst other genera of both Orders many 

 cross afiinities may be traced. Droseracece and Grossulariece seem 



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