Mr. J. Miers on some genera of the Icacinacese. 485 



he endeavoured to show that it was closely related to Mauria and 

 Rhus in AnacardiacecB, in which opinion he was joined by Prof. 

 Lindley in his ' Vegetable Kingdom/ and also by Endhcher in 

 the 3rd Supplement of his ' Genera Plantarum.'' Lastly, Dr. 

 Planchon (Hook. Icon. 778) indicated its affinity with the Ola- 

 cacece. The evidence I am now able to offer will prove satisfac- 

 torily that its true position is among the Icacinacetje, although it 

 offers certain peculiarities deserving our attention. It will be 

 seen to accord with that family in all its most essential characters ; 

 viz. in its habit, its polygamous or dioecious flowers, its small 

 persistent 5-toothed calyx, its 5 fleshy linear petals with an in- 

 flexed apical point and valvate aestivation; its 5 hypogynous 

 stamens alternating with these and nearly equal to them in 

 length, with filaments induplicated in the bud; its somewhat 

 gibbous ovarium, entirely free, which by abortion is unilocular, 

 with ovules suspended from near the summit of the cell ; its dru- 

 paceous fruit, containing an osseous indehiscent putamen, which 

 encloses a single suspended seed, and an embryo with superior 

 radicle, enveloped in fleshy albumen. The peculiarities just 

 alluded to consist in the retroverted position of its ovule, as 

 shown in the development of the fruit, in a manner similar to 

 that seen in Euonymus, and which probably will be found to 

 exist in other genera of the Icacinacece, The summit of the 

 putamen is furnished with a kind of dorsal and apical cristate 

 protuberance, which is prominent in the typical species but less 

 so in the others, and which is also seen in the putamen of 

 Apodytes and Mappia ; but below the extremity of this crest in 

 Pennantia, a very distinct foramen is evident:, through which the 

 strophiole or funicular support of the suspended seed passes, and 

 which strophiole is evidently in connexion with the raphe-like 

 cord that is seen imbedded in the pulp, proceeding from this 

 point, along the external ventral side of the nut, to its base. A 

 corresponding termination of the funiculus is observable in the 

 putamen of Mappia-, but there no such aperture exists, although 

 the point of suspension is at the same spot, and a similar cord 

 is likewise seen externally, descending from that point, along the 

 ventral face to the base, as in Pennaniia. Reisseck describes the 

 ovarium as being sometimes 2-locular, though generally I-locular, 

 and in his analytical sections it is represented as having only a 

 single cell. Endlicher, however, in his ^ Prodr. Fl. Norf.' had long 

 before stated it to be 3-locular, in the species iiom Norfolk 

 Island, a fact repeated in his ' Genera Plantarum.^ A. Cunning- 

 ham, quoting the generic character upon Endlicher^s authority, 

 also desci'ibes the ovarium of the New Zealand species to be 

 3-locular (Ann. Nat. Hist. iii. 248). Endlicher, however, in the 

 3rd Supplement of the ' Genera Plantarum,^ evidently upon the 



