and on various Plants related to them. ' 311 



Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous plants. This will allow for gradations 

 in structure and for a number of independent points of contact. The group- 

 ing of these plants in either of the modes proposed does not do this, but, on 

 the contrary, isolates Dicotyledons. 



Obs. III. — If I consider Rkizanthece in a mere systematic point of view, I 

 find that the opinions regarding its value vary very considerably. This I take 

 to be an objection to its being really founded in nature. 



M. Blume in his ' Flora Javee'* appears to liuiit the group to Rafflesia and 

 Brngmansia, with a reservation, perhaps, in favour of Cytinus, Jpodanthes and 

 Aphyteia. So that Blume's Rhizanthete, as therein defined, is some vhat equi- 

 valent to a natural group of two families, i. e. to an alliance of Dr. Lindleyf . 



M. Blume considers {loc. cit.) that Rkizanthece are closely allied to Fungi, 

 but he adds, " altiori tamen evolutionis gradu ab iisdem recedunt pla?itarum 

 perfectiorum magis ahsolutam mutuando formarn" ; and although he notices that 

 Mr. Robert Brown had referred them without doubt to Dicotyledones, yet he 

 himself is inclined to adhere to his original opinion, published in the Batavian 

 'Ephemeris,' that Rkizanthece or Rafflesiacece are in nowise to be associated with 

 Phanerogamce, but are to be ranked among the more perfect Cryptogamce, close 

 to Marsileacece. And he appears to have been so guided by these views, that 

 in his description he makes no mention of the ovula, but disguising their true 

 nature by the terms pseudocarpium, peridium, or sporangium, applied to a true 

 ovarium, passes at once to the spores, although the identity of the earlier state 

 of these with most ordinary ovula is plainly enough represented in the illustra- 

 tions]:. He even apologisesfor calling theinteguments of the flower perianthium, 

 owing, he says, to their close resemblance to those of cotyledonary plants ! 



In M. Endlicher's ' Genera Plantarum,' which gives, I imagine, his latest 

 opinions regarding these plants, Rhizanthece form the class of a " regiu" di- 

 vided into three cohorts, and which, commencing with Hepaticve, ascends 

 through Filices to Cycadece, and thence to Rhizanthece. The next division, a 

 " subregio," commences with Graminece ! 



* Flora Javae, Rhizanthea, p. 2. 



t The synonomy of M. Endlicher in his ' Genera Plantarum,' pp. 72 and 75, and that of Dr. Lindley in 

 his ' Introduction to the Natural System,' ed. 2. pp. 389 and 392, appear to me on this score very faulty. 

 X Flora Java, Bragmansia Zippellii, t. 5. f. 16. 



VOL. XIX. 2 T 



