216 Linnaan Society, 



reniformis, siibcompressus, hinc appendice carnosa auctus. Inflores- 

 centia terminalis. 



LERETIA. 



Flores liermapliroditi, v. abortu masculi. Calyx parvus, immutatus. Pe- 

 tala 5, intus villosa. Stamina totidem, iis alterna, sterilia nulla. Ova- 

 rium I -loculare. Fructus (ex icone Fl. Fium.) depresso-globosus. Injlo- 

 rescentia axillaris, laxa. 



POGOPETALUM. 



Flores bermapbroditi. Caljix parvus (fructifer parum auctus ?). Petala 

 4, 5, intiis villosa. Stamitia totidem, iis alterna, sterilia nulla. Ova- 

 rium 3-loculare. Fructus depresso-globosus ? Inflorescentia axillaris, 

 densa. 



Of the latter genus two spebies are characterized : 



P. orbiculatum, foliis ovato-orbiculatis obtusissimis subtus ramulisque in- 

 canis, ovario hispido. — A shrub ten or twelve feet in height, found in 

 dry Savannahs on the Padawire River, Schomhurgk. 



P. acuminatum^ foliis ovatis oblongisve acuminatis subtus vix pallidioribus, 

 ovario glabro. — A tree of about thirty feet high, growing on the high 

 banks of the Rio Negro, Schomhurgk, n. 970. 



Mr. Bentham suggests that the three tribes above characterized 

 may perhaps, when better known, be considered as distinct orders. 

 He thinks, however, that the species of Olax in which the dissepi- 

 ments of the ovary are almost entirely obliterated form a transition 

 to OpiliecE ; that Gomphandra connects Opiliete with IcacinerB ; and 

 that Pogopetalum is in many respects equally allied to OlacecB and to 

 Icacineae. He states that Olacea approach most nearly to the poly- 

 petalous orders with which Olacinem have been compared ; but he 

 cannot admit of the supposed affinity between them and Aurantiaceee. 

 Humiriacea axe, he thinks, among Dichlamydeous plants, those which 

 come nearest to Olacinece ; and he considers Stijracecc (including 

 Symplocem and Halesiacece of Don) to be very near both to Humi- 

 riacecB and Olacinece. Cornece and some other albuminous orders 

 have also, in his opinion, some relation to them, but much more 

 distant. 



He considers the nearest approach to Santalacem to occur in the 

 tribe Opiliece, where the calyx is reduced to little more than a dila- 

 tation of the torus ; and if it be admitted that there are true Santa- 

 laceous genera with a superior ovary, and if he is right in supposing 

 that, in the young buds of Opilia and Cansjera, there is more than one 

 ovule, these two genera become so nearly intermediate, in his opi- 

 nion, between Olacece and Santalaceee, as to have nearly as much 

 claim to be associated with the latter as with the former. 



Lastly, he states that Icacinecs recede from the two other tribes in 

 the adherence of the placenta to one angle of the ovarium, and in 

 the seed being consequently pendulous and not erect; a circumstance 

 which would have led him to propose it as a distinct order, were it 

 not for the remaikable resemblance in the floral parts to some true 

 Olacineous genera, and the absence of any other distinctive character 

 of importance. 



