. GARDNER ON CARLUDOVICA, &C. - 27 
superior, 1-celled; ovule 1, suspended. Style 1. Stigma simple. 
Caryopsis free, included in the fleshy perianth, black, slightly 
rugose, crowned by the persistent style; seed exalbuminous ; 
. embryo inverted; cotyledons plano-convex, peltate at the base; 
radicle superior, short, included ; plumule conspicuous, 2- 
leaved. | 
In the character of Cassythacee, as adopted by Lindley, the 
want of glands at the base of the inner stamens appears to 
me to be the sole circumstance in which tbe Order differs 
from Lauracee ; and as they certainly exist in the only species 
which I have had an opportunity of examining, it is to be 
inferred that they exist in all. The Order then has nothing 
to distinguish it from Lauraceæ, but its leafless twining 
parasitical habit, a character certainly not of sufficient im- 
portance to constitute the establishment of a distinct Order. 
If habit alone, without a well marked difference in the organs 
of fructification, is to be taken as a sufficient ordinal distinc- 
tion, there will be no end to the creation of new groups at 
the expense of the old. Many Orders as at present con- 
stituted, and conceived to rest on solid grounds, contain as 
anomalous genera as does Lauracee, with Cassytha retained —— 
in it; take for example Euphorbiaceae, Cactacee, Asclepia- | 
dacee, Urticacee, and even Orchidaceg. If Cassythacee had 
characters as well marked as those of J/ligeracee to separate 
it from Lauracee, it would be well to keep them distinct; 
as it is, it must still be retained as a section of the latter 
Order. 
CARLUDOVICA. Ruiz et Pavon. 
A species of this genus, (C. Gardneri,) which grows in det 
shady ravines on the mountains in this vicinity, has afforded me 
an opportunity of examining the structure of its fructification 
also, which, judging from the generic character given by 
Sprengel, in his Systema Vegetabilium, the only book on the 
Subject which I can at present consult, seems to be very ill 
understood. . He considers the genus moncecious, and gives 
the male flowers a many-toothed calyx, and, to the female, 
