Mr. J. Miers on the Affinities of the Olacacese. 171 



distinct petals, always valvate in aestivation, and sometimes ad- 

 hering by the margins at their base into a somewhat gamope- 

 talous tube, but which by a little force may be separated from 

 each other without any laceration ; stamens generally equal in 

 number to the petals and opposite to them, sometimes double 

 that number, in which case they are by turns opposite and alter- 

 nate, or at times one half of them are sterile and appendiciform, 

 or in shape of petaloid scales. Around the ovary are sometimes 

 free hypogynous glands, alternate with the petals, but generally 

 these are combined into a cup-shaped nectary, which in some 

 instances, as in Liriosma, is free from the ovarium and partially 

 adnate to the calyx ; but in others, as in Schopfia, Iodina, Arjoona, 

 and Quinchamalium, it is wholly adnate to the ovarium and free 

 from the calyx, while in Cathedra it is free both from the calyx 

 and ovarium. This hypogynous disk, when developed, always 

 bears on its margin the petals and stamens. The ovarium is 

 always wholly superior with respect to the calyx, but often partly 

 immersed in the cupuliform disk, and is frequently surmounted 

 by a remarkable fleshy epigynous gland, which sometimes wholly 

 covers its upper moiety ; it bears a simple style, and a more or 

 less clavate stigma. The internal structure of the ovarium is 

 always constant in its character ; unilocular at its summit, and 

 more or less divided at base into incomplete cells, by spurious 

 dissepiments, which separating from the axis, are often continued 

 along the walls of the cell, in the form of so many narrow parietal 

 keels. The placenta is axile, united at base with the short in- 

 complete dissepiments, but quite free above, in the shape of an 

 axile column, from which are suspended as many ovules as there 

 are pseudo-dissepiments ; these are generally three in number, 

 more seldom two or five, and rarely by abortion only one, as 

 occurs sometimes, but not always, in Opilia : this axile placenta, 

 very distinct from the ordinary trophosperm, and which I have 

 elsewhere proposed to call a Cionosperm (from klcov, columella), 

 sometimes does not extend beyond the point of insertion of the 

 ovules, while at others it rises above, in the form of an apical 

 point, as in Ximenia, where it is prolonged far into a cavity of 

 the style that is continuous with the cell of the ovarium, but in 

 such cases it is always free and unconnected with it. One ovule 

 only (as in the Santalacea) becomes matured into a fleshy drupe, 

 which is sometimes supported at its base upon its unchanged 

 calyx, while in others, as in Olax, Heisteria, Cathedra, and Quin- 

 chamalium, the calyx enlarges and encloses the fruit ; and in some 

 cases, as in Liriosma, the calyx increases in size, and becoming 

 adnate, forms the fleshy external covering of the drupe. The 

 putamen is one-celled, containing a single suspended seed; this, 

 at first sight, presents a naked albumen filling the cavity, as in 



