42 Mr. J. Miers on the Winteracese. 



phical distribution, appear to me sufficient to establish the 

 validity of these several species nearly as they are described by 

 DeCandolle and other botanists. 



The plant from Juan Fernandez I consider to be specifically 

 distinct; and I find another, from extratropical Brazil, with 

 smaller and very narrow, almost linear leaves, and terminal 

 flowers on simple peduncles, which is certainly different from 

 D. Brasiliensis ; and likewise a third, of remarkable aspect, col- 

 lected by Claussen in the province of Minas Geraes, to which 

 Dr. Hooker* alludes, as being a singular state of D. Granatensis ; 

 but it ill-accords with that species, on account of its inflores- 

 cence, and its smaller and excessively revolute leaves. I have 

 referred to Tasmannia, for reasons that will be given, the species 

 from the island of Borneo, D. piperita, placed in this genus by 

 Dr. Hooker. 



I may here remark, that some of the species (more especially 

 D. Granatensis) have a disposition to produce what gardeners 

 call double flowers; in the variety Mexicana of that species 

 there are usually twelve petals, which are sometimes increased 

 to twenty-four in number f. 



The anthers in Drimys are generally described as being dor- 

 sally attached to the broad filament, but this is not the case ; the 

 two cells are quite separate, and affixed by a median line to the 

 margins of the filament, which margins are reflected outward, 

 so that the anther-cells are thus approximated, and thrown into 

 an extrorse position. In farther proof of this, I may here men- 

 tion that I have sometimes met with a stamen half-transformed 

 into a petal, in which case the anther-cells are widely separated, 

 and attached to each margin of the petal, a little below the 

 middle. 



I propose dividing the species into four sections, distinguished 

 by the simple or umbellate, either terminal or axillary flowers, 

 and suggest the following emended character from my own 

 observations. 



Drimys, Forst. Wintera, Murr. — Flores hermaphroditi. Calyx 

 in alabastro clausus et indivisus, demum lacerato-partitus in 

 segmentis 2-3 concavis, reflexis, deciduis. Petala 6 ad 24, 

 oblonga vel lineari-lanceolata, 1-3-seriata, calyce 3-4-plo lon- 

 giora, toro subcylindrico cum staminibus insita, patentia, 

 decidua, aestivation e apicibus replicatis imbricata. Stamina 

 plurima (15 ad 40), indefinita, pluriseriata, hypogyna, brevis- 

 sima ; filamenta compressa, crassiuscula : antherce 2-lobse, lobis 

 ovatis, sejunctis, subdivaricatis, ad margines versus apicem 

 filamenti utrinque affixis, vix extrorsis, linea longitudinali 



* Flor. Autarct. ii. 230. t DeC. Syst. i. 444. 



