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stigmas capitate. Achaenium (fruit) coriaceous, 3- 

 winged, cordato-ovoid, 1 -celled; cell ending in an 

 elongated neck, similarly winged, interrupted near 

 the middle by a deep sinus, the base and apex round- 

 ed. Seed erect, filling the cell, somewhat triangxilar, 

 stipitate, beaked, albuminous ; albumen wanting in 

 the beak round the radicle. Embryo axile, straight, 

 clavate ; radicle superior, about twice the length of 

 the cotyledons. — ^Erect, ramous shi'ubs, branches al- 

 ternate. Leaves coriaceous, entire, 2-stipuled, some- 

 times fascicled. Flowers hermaphrodite, fascicled, 

 2-3 from each fascicle of leaves, pedicelled ; pedicels 

 articulated below the middle, thickened at the apex, 

 vaginate with sheathing bracts at the base. Fruit 



drooping. 

 I have taken the liberty of abbreviating this generic 



character, which in the original is very long. The 

 most curious feature of the plant here represented is 

 found in the fi'uit, which, at the neck, receives a 

 twist, by which the upper half of the wing becomes 

 alternate with the lower, giving the fruit the appear- 

 ance of having six wings, three above and three 

 below. In another species, this peculiarity is want- 

 ing, the fruit in it not being so contorted. 



1809. Pteropyrum oliverii (J. and S.), leaves 

 fascicled, obovate or oblong, or spathulate, or some- 

 what roundish, linear, or flat : terminal wings of the 

 fruit almost concealed by the larger alternate lower 

 ones. 



Scinde. I am indebted to Dr. Stocks for my 

 specimens of this curious plant. ' 



As the genus has not yet found its way into gene- 

 ral systematic works on Botany, I have felt it neces- 



Nixus suggested their affinity with CucurhitacecB^ and 

 has been followed by Endlicher and Brongniart, the 

 former, however, with the remark that it is a difficult 

 order, not closely associating with any yet known, 

 and whose true affinities are questionable. Lindley, 

 in his VegetaWe Kingdom, still adheres to this view, 

 and places the order in his Cucurbital alliance. This 

 I think by far the best station yet indicated, but still 

 the affinity appears so remote, that for the present I 

 am almost disposed to go so far as to say that it has 

 no really near affinity in the living flora of the earth, 

 and that we must seek its relationships among the 

 fossil remains of a former world. 



Lindley in his character of the order assigns 4 

 sepals to the male, and 5 to the female flowers. This 

 must be received with some latitude, as the numbers 

 differ in different species. In regard to the seed, 

 they are said to be without albumen, which, in those 

 I have examined, is not the case, they having a rather 

 large albumen in proportion to the size of the seed. 



On the subject of affinities, Lindley's views seem 

 at first sight very paradoxical, but may after all, 

 like many other paradoxes, prove veiy near the 

 truth. He says " the relationship of Detassa is well 

 made out,'' though it has a decidedly 1 -celled ovary, 

 with parietal placentae. To this I demur. Again, 

 after stating that the main objection to the associa- 

 tion of Begoniads and Cucurbits in the same alliance 

 is the apparent difference of their placentation — axile 

 in the former, parietal in the latter — ^he thus proceeds 

 to show that the distinction is one of words, rather 

 than of essential structure. " The ovary of such 

 Begoniads (some species of DiplocUnium) consists of 

 three carpels whose dorsal suture is winged, and 



sary to give the generic character. It is given at whose margins turn inwards for a considerable dis- 



fuU length in Walper's Annals of Botany, vol. 1st, 



p. 553. 



1810. KuMEx Xepalensis (Spreng,), glabrous, 

 verticels remote, many-flowered : fructiferous branches 

 nearly leafless : valves ovate, oblong, obtuse, reticu- 

 lately- veined ; one of them obsoletely grain-bear- 

 ing, furnished at the base with subulate fimbrise, na- 

 ked towards the apex, the bristles shorter than the 

 breadth of the valve : leaves acute, somewhat waved, 

 the lower ones ovate, oblong, cordate at the base ; the 

 radical ones oblong, snbcordate ; upper ones lanceo- 

 late : stem very ramous, furrowed, thick. 



Neilgherries, frequent, also on the Pulney Mount- 

 ains, but less common. 



Begoniace-3;. 



This very curious order, consisting at present of 3 

 genera and about 160 species, has hitherto so completely 

 set the natural system of botany and its expounders at 

 defiance, so far as regards finding relationships is 

 concerned, that I think I may almost hazard the 

 assertion, that these are at the present moment about 

 as little known as they were in 1789, when Jussieu 

 published his genera with the genus Begonia placed 

 among his " plantae incerte sedS," Since then many 

 attempts have been made to find a suitable location 

 in the natiiral series. De Candolle placed it between 

 Chenopodiace<B and Polygonacem in which he has 

 been followed by several excellent Botanists. Link 

 looks to the UmbelUfera for affinities; Martius to 

 Sc(Bvole<B near Campanvlacece; Meisner turns thence 

 to the JEuphorbiacetje^ and thinks he has found the 

 most suitable station in their vicinity ; Lindley in his 



fornung 



which the ovules are arranged. This, with the ex- 

 ception of the wing proceeding from the dorsal suture, 

 is the structure of Cummis.^'* To understand this it 

 is necessary to observe that the midribs of the carpel- 

 lary leaves of a Cucurbit are opposite the points of at- 

 tachment of the seed (see a transverse section of a 

 cucumber), and that the white line, extending from the 

 centre of the fruit to the seed, is not the partition be- 

 tween 2 cells, but is the two inflexed margins of the 

 same carpel as shown in DiplocUnium ; while the in- 



termediate triangul 



the thin partition shown to 

 all the following transverse 



sections of the ovary and firuit of Begomads. 



This view is certamly very ingenious, and is borne 

 out by what we see in Rhododendron and some 

 Gesneracece^ where similar marginal inflections of the 



carpellary leaves exist. This view of the structure 

 of a Pepo, which at once and for ever overturns the 

 one which I formerly advanced, leaves no doubt, 

 when takeii in connexion with the identity of form 

 of the stigmas and some points of habit, that Bego- 

 niads and Cucurbits more nearly associate with each 

 other than either does with almost any other in the 

 series of natural orders. There ai'e still however 

 many points of difference between them, though it 

 must be admitted that a great step has been made 

 towards beconung acquainted with their true re- 

 lationships. On the subject of the parietal position 

 of the placentae of Cucurbits, I confess I am not yet 

 quite a convert to the doctrine, stUl less so after 

 being told that the difference between those of a 



Peno and a Beironia is one of words rather than of 



( 8 ) 



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