672 Mr. Bentuam’s Account of two new Genera allied to Olacineæ. 
Meisner *, and lastly Endlichert, have all, with much doubt it is true, 
placed them near Aurantiaceæ, whilst Lindley inserts them, with equal 
hesitation, among his Pittosporales §. 
The genera usually considered as true Olacineew, are Olax, Linn., (including 
Spermaxyrum, Labill., and Fissilia, Commers.,) Heisteria, Linn., Ximenia, Linn., 
Gomphandra, Wall., and, as anomalous forms, Opilia, Roxb., (including Groutia, 
Guillem.,) and Icacina, Adr. Juss. To these I propose to add, besides Apody- 
tes, E. Meyer, Schomburgk's new genus, which I have called Pogopetalum, and 
Leretia, Vellozo, now first described, also Schapfia, Schreb., and Cansjera, 
Lam. I do not advert to the genera of Du Petit Thouars and Blume, usually 
enumerated at the end of O/acinec, nor to Quilesia of Manuel Blanco, because, 
until they shall have been more completely or more accurately described, their 
affinities can only be guessed at; and Balanites has long since been rejected 
by Jussieu, though still occasionally added to Olacineæ, for no other reason 
that I can perceive but from its having once been considered as a species of 
Ximenia. 
The above-named genera consist chiefly of trees or shrubs, occasionally climb- 
ing, unarmed, or in Ximenia and some species of Olax, bearing axillary spines. 
The leaves are alternate, exstipulate, simple and entire, neither glandular nor 
dotted. The inflorescence is terminal only in Icacina and Apodytes, where it 
is corymbose ; in all the other genera it is axillary; glomerate in Heisteria ; 
racemose in Ximenia, Olax, Schepfia, Opilia and Cansjera, the flowers being 
often distichously arranged in the racemes, sometimes irregular and even 
solitary in the Australian, one East Indian, and one American species of Olax ; 
cymose in Pogopetalum, Leretia, and in the male individuals of Gomphandra. 
The bractes at the base of the pedicels are membranous and very small, 
excepting in Opilia, where they are broad and imbricate before the raceme is 
fully developed. Bracteolæ are present in Schepfia. i 
The flowers are hermaphrodite in most cases, unisexual by abortion in 
Gomphandra, and occasionally polygamous in Leretia. 
* Plantarum Vascularium Genera, p. 45, Commentarius, p. 33. 
t Genera Plantarum, p. 1041. Introduction to the Natural System, p. 32. 
§ Since this paper was read, I have received Decaisne’s Memoir on the Mistletoe, in which he fully 
concurs in Brown’s views of the close affinity between the Olacinee and Santalacee 
