226 Mr. Bentuam’s Observations on some Genera of Plants 
serie quadruplici corolla tubo accreta, inferioribus brevioribus. Autherd sub- 
rotunda. Germen subrotundum. Stylus filiformis, longitudine staminum. 
Stigma capitatum subtrifidum." 
The above character will be found in every respect, as far as it goes, ad- 
mirably adapted to Pohl’s Stemmatosiphons, as well as to the original Symplocos, 
and to Aublet's Ciponima; for although the words Petala quinque rather indi- 
cate a polypetalous corolla, yet their adherence at the base is plainly indicated 
by the subsequent expression, Filamenta . . . . tubo corollw accreta. 
L'Héritier in the first volume of the Tinea Transactions (p. 174.) first 
proposed the joining the genera Hopea (Linn. Mant. p.14.), Alstonia (Linn. 
Fil. Suppl. p.39.), and Ciponima (Aubl. Plant. Guian. i. p. 567. t. 226.) to 
Symplocos, of which it became consequently necessary to modify the character 
in many points, of which the most important are, Calyx superus quinquepar- 
titus. Corolla ....campanulata .... petalis s. laciniis 5—10.... basi in 
tubum longitudine calycis coalitis . . . . Filamenta . . . . submonadelpha s. basi 
inæqualiter connexa ....in plures ordines imbricata .... Germen inferum 
. Stigma ....subquinquelobum. To these were also added the carpolo- 
gical characters, Linnæus himself not having seen the fruit of his Symplocos. 
In regard to the relative situation of the calyx and ovarium (or germen, as 
it was formerly termed,) there is here an inconvenience in expression still 
adhered to generally by British botanists, although long since adverted to and 
corrected by continental authors, who speak of the calyx as free or adnate, 
instead of inferior and superior. In Symplocos and in all the genera associated 
with it the tube of the calyx is generally more or less free from the ovary at 
the time of flowering, but with the development of the fruit it adheres to it 
more and more, till, at the maturity, the tube of the calyx becomes entirely 
confounded with the fleshy pericarp, and the segments alone remain free, 
crowning the fruit at the top,—a circumstance difficult to describe with the 
old nomenclature, unless on the supposition, that during the maturation the 
calyx moves from its original point of insertion. 
As to the corolla and stamina, L'Héritier's character, intended to apply both 
to Symplocos, Linn., and Hopea, Linn., is not so correct as Linnæus's for the 
former genus, nor does it either apply with accuracy to the latter one, which 
has scarcely any tube to the corolla, and in which the stamina cannot be said to 
