and on various Plants related to Mem. l\\ I 



Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous plants. This will allow for gradations 

 in structure and for a number of independent points of contact. The group- 

 ing of these plants in either of the modes proposed docs not do this. but. on 

 the contrary, isolates Dicotyledons. 



Obs. III. — If I consider Rhizantkece in a mere systematic point of view. I 

 find that the opinions regarding its value vary very considerably. This I take 

 to be an objection to its being really founded in nature. 



M. Bin me in his ' Flora Java 1 '* appears to limit the group to Rafflesta and 

 Rrugmansia, with a reservation, perhaps, in favour of Cufinns, Apodemtke* and 

 Aphyteia. So that Blame's Rhizanthete, as therein defined, is some \ hat equi- 

 valent to a natural group of two families, i. e. to an alliance of Dr. Jandlcyf . 



M. Blume considers {loc. cit,) that Rhizatttkete are closely allied to Fungi, 

 but he adds, " altiori tamtn evolutionis gradn u)> iisdem recedunt plant arum 

 perfectiorum magis absolutam mutuando formatn' ; and although he notices that 

 Mr. Robert Brown had referred them without doubt to Dicotyledones, yet he 

 himself is inclined to adhere to his original opinion, published in the Batavian 

 'Ephemeris,' that Rhizanthew or Rafflesiacew are in nowise to be associated with 

 Phanerogams, but are to be ranked among the more perfect Crupfugunuv, close 

 to Marsileaceas. And he appears to have been so guided by these views, that 

 in his description he makes no mention of the ovula, but disguising their true 

 nature by the terms pseudocarpium, peridium, or sporangium, applied to a true 

 ovarium, passes at once to the spores, although the identity of the earlier state 

 of these with most ordinary ovula is plainly enough represented in the illustra- 

 tions J. He even apologisesfor calling theintegumentsoftheflower perianthium, 

 owing, he says, to their close resemblance to those of cotyledonary plants I 



In M. Endlicher's < Geneva Plantarum,' which gives, I imagine, his latest 

 opinions regarding these plants, Rhizanthew form the class of a " reghr di- 

 vided into three cohorts, and which, commencing with Hepaticiv, ascends 

 through Filices to Cycadeae, and thence to Rhizanthew. The next division, a 

 " subregio," commences with Graminece I 



* Flora Java?, Rhizanthete, p. 2. 



t The synonoroy of M. Endlicher in his ' Genera Plantarum.' pp. 72 and 75, and that of Dr. Lindley in 

 his ' Introduction to the Natural System,' ed. 2. pp. 389 and 392, appear to me on this score very faulty. 



I Flora Java, Bragmansia Zippellii, t. 5. i. 16. 

 VOL. XIX. 2 T 



