Mr. J. Miers on the Winteracese. 109 



XII.— On the Winteracese. By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



[Continued from p. 48.] 



2. Tasmannia. 



There appears to be little difference between this genus and 

 Drimys, the principal distinction being in its sometimes poly- 

 gamous or monoecious flowers, and in its having occasionally, by 

 abortion, only one or two ovaries ; there is, however, a marked 

 difference in the form of its stigma. The calyx is at first entire, 

 and closed as in Drimys, and becomes divided into two equal 

 hemispherical valves, which soon fall away. Endlicher erro- 

 neously describes the calyx as consisting of two flat sepals. One 

 species has eight or ten petals, a second five or six, while in the 

 third their number is sometimes reduced to two. The stamens 

 are seated upon a short cylindrical gynophorus, in four rows, of 

 which the outer series are shortest ; the oval anther-cells, sepa- 

 rated by an interval, are adnately fixed and partly immersed in 

 the margin of the filament, and they burst by a lateral fissure. 

 The ovaries, sometimes solitary, often two or four, are seated in 

 the centre of the stamens; they are suborbicular, somewhat 

 gibbous, with a sessile stigma in the form of a crenated crest, 

 which runs from the apex down the inner side ; they are uni- 

 locular, with a single longitudinal parietal placenta, which in 

 the male flower is often sterile, but which in the female bears 

 several ovules arranged biserially as in Drimys. The fruit is a 

 berry, about the size of a large pea, with a furrow upon two 

 opposite sides ; it contains from fifteen to eighteen small reni- 

 form seeds, with a polished black exterior, and which in general 

 structure appear to correspond with those of Drimys. 



The species hitherto assigned to this genus are natives of 

 Australia and Van Diemen's Land, where they form evergreen 

 trees, the bark and leaves of which generally abound in an aro- 

 matic principle, as in Drimys. I have no hesitation in referring 

 hither the Drimys piperita of Dr. Hooker, from the island of 

 Borneo, where it is found at an altitude of 8000 feet. It agrees 

 with Tasmannia in its flowers sometimes having no stamens, 

 with a solitary carpel ; and we often meet with hermaphrodite 

 flowers, sometimes having only one, but more generally having 

 four ovaries. Its fringed stigma, decurrent to the bottom of 

 the ovary, corresponds with Tasmannia, and is quite at variance 

 with that of Drimys : in like manner, the form and position of 

 the anthers upon more elongated filaments differ from that 

 genus. 



The following is offered as an emendated character : — 



Tasmannia, R. Br. — Flores monoici, polygami, aut hcrmaphro- 



