410 Dr. Planchon on Meliantheae 



Until now, while speaking of Melianthus, I have purposely restricted my 

 observations to Melianthus major and M. Himalayanus, because they deviate 

 in several important points from the structure of the two other Cape species, 

 viz. Melianthus minor, L. and Melianthus comosus, Vahl : in these, the constant 

 abortion of the fifth anterior (apparently posterior) petal, the total absence of 

 any depression in that part of the receptacle which is inclosed by the gland, 

 and of any lobes at either end of the capsule, — all these points concur with 

 the striking peculiarities of facies, to point out the plants in question as types 

 of an independent genus ; the name of which, Diplerisma, will allude to the 

 character of their free, lateral, subulate stipules, so very different from the 

 wide, double, intrapetiolar stipule of the real Melianthus. 



Having thus brought under a comparative review the four genera which 

 constitute the order of Melianthece, we may conclude with some general in- 

 ferences on their common relations to other groups ; or, rather, we may 

 establish upon proofs what has been anticipated above of their being equally 

 removed from Rutacece and Zygophyllece, while they are closely allied to Sa- 

 pindacece on the one hand and to Geraniacece on the other. 



First, .although the sagacious and profound A. Laur. de Jussieu had con- 

 nected, under the common name of Rutacece, the genera which Mr. Robert 

 Brown distributed afterwards into the independent orders of Zygophyllece 

 and Diosmece, it strikes me that those orders belong to natural classes truly 

 bordering on each other, but quite distinct. On one side, Diosmece (in- 

 cluding Rutece, Diosmece proper, Xanthoxylece and Aurantiacece) form, with 

 Simarubece and Meliacece, a vast and indivisible class ; on the other side, Zygo- 

 phyllece, Oxalidece, Connaracece, Leguminosce and Moringece are connected by 

 so many points of structure and habit, that they offer, in my humble opinion, a 

 rare example of a well-marked and at the same time complete natural group ; 

 where the constant tendency of the folioles of the compound leaf to periodical 

 sleep, or sometimes to sudden motion under an irritating influence, is always 

 connected with that important structural fact, the articulation of the foliole 

 with the stipes on which it moves. Sapindacece do not seem to me to belong 

 to the first class, any more than Geraniacece deserve to be united with Oxa- 

 lidece, although this last opinion is generally prevalent. In fact, the true 

 spirit of improvement in science is not to submit tamely and blindly to received 



