266 ARNOTT ON SOUTH AFRICAN PLANTS. 



a very early state ; this loosened septum must be what had 

 been previously supposed a free central column, but while it 

 is detached from the sides, its connexion with the base is also 

 interrupted, so that it soon adheres only to the apex of the 

 ovarium. 



The seed has not been seen by Klotzsch or Endlicher. 

 I find it to contain in Ophiria, a small green cylindrical em- 

 bryo at the upper end of a copious fleshy and somewhat oily 

 white albumen; I have not the seed of G?ubbia:'Deca.\sne 

 however attributes the above structure to both genera. I 

 quite agree then with that botanist when he says that these 

 two " have been improperly classed among the Santalacece •' 

 and with Mr Harvey that the structure of the anthers relates 

 them to HamamelidecB, or as I had the pleasure of indicat- 

 ing to Mr Harvey, that they form a small group interme- 

 diate between that Order and Briiniacece, but most allied to 

 the latter. It is indeed with Bruniacece that M. Decaisne 

 also allies them, an affinity which w^ould be still more decided 

 if his analysis of the ovary were to prove correct. 



Endlicher, Klotzsch, and Decaisne, state these genera to 

 be without petals. Harvey in Gruhbia describes what they 

 call the segments of the perianth, as petals. In both I find 

 the calyx truncated, and the petals (4, or sometimes but 

 rarely 5 in Ophiria), inserted within the margin of the calyx 

 that is continuous with the inner but not with the outer sur- 

 face of the calyx ; these touch each other, but scarcely cohere 

 at the base, are valvate in sestivation, and deciduous. To 

 this group I long since proposed to Mr Harvey to give the 

 name of Ophiriacece, in preference to Grubbiacece^ for reasons 

 obvious to an English ear; its place would be towards the 

 end of the class DiscanthecB of Endlicher. 



I have only further to add, that Endlicher states the stamens 

 to be placed in pairs before the segments of the perianth 

 (petals) ; while Klotzsch observes them to be on a double 

 row, «' exteriora sublcmgiora perianthii laciniis opposita, in- 

 teriora subbreviora cum iisdem alterna." I cannot discover 

 that they are so placed, and moreover if any are longer than 



