DE. MEISNEE ON CHAM^ELATJOIEJ!. 43 



wisely, — Schauer, the monographer of Chatncelauciece (Nov. Act. 

 Acad. Leopold.-Car. vol. xix. suppl. 2) has only subdivided it into 

 three sections, characterized partly by the structure of the calyx 

 and partly by that of the anthers As however the anthers show 

 but very minute and (except in two species only, viz. V. grandi- 

 flora and nobilis) by no means striking characters, we should 

 have thought it preferable to establish the sections chiefly, if not 

 exclusively, on the structure of the calyx, according to its having 

 three or two or only one series of lobes or appendages. Of these 

 different series of lobes, the innermost, and often the sole existing, 

 i. e. that whose lobes alternate with the petals and are always 

 coloured and deeply divided or friuged, is undoubtedly formed by 

 the free ends of the five sepals, and continuous with the tube 

 formed by the coalition of their inferior portion. But what are 

 the lobes of the accessory second and third series ? Without 

 presuming to decide this question, I may only say that, instead of 

 regarding them as a second and third whorl of (more or less 

 altered) sepals, we would rather consider them as mere appendages 

 of the calycinal leaves, analogous to those so commonly occurring 

 in Lythrariece, in certain Melastomacece ( Otanthera, Blume ; Lean- 

 dra, E-addi ; Melastoma, &c), and even in some Myrtacece (species 

 of Astartea, D.C. ; Lophostemon, Schott), or to the scales on the 

 calyx of certain species of Osbeckia, although the fixity of their 

 number and position (those of one series constantly alternating 

 in the most regular manner with those of the next series) would 

 perhaps speak against our opinion ; while on the other hand the 

 10-lobed, 2-seriate calyx of Pileanthus, and the doubled, trebled, 

 quadrupled, or even more increased number of stamens in the 

 plurality of genera of Myrtacece, seem to indicate a tendency in 

 this order to multiply the number and most probably also the 

 series or whorls of these organs. At all events, that inter- 

 pretation of the appendages in question which Dr. Schauer has 

 given in his Monograph, appears, to say the least, very unsa- 

 tisfactory and arbitrary. What I have designated (in V. chry- 

 sostachys, oculata and grandis) as the lobes of the first series, 

 Dr. Schauer mentions (though only en passant, in the descrip- 

 tion of V. Lindleyi, pennigera and Drunwwndii) under the name 

 of "ungues loborum" (they are distinctly figured on his tab. 4. B. 

 fig. 8, 9. litt. b), although they evidently do not originate from 

 the base, but from the upper part of the calyx, and always have 

 their apex free, not adnate to the tube. What I have de- 

 scribed as the reflexed and fringed membranous or petaloid lobes 





