lary part of the style hardens and rolls up, eventually leaving 

 the prolongation of the placenta as a distinct beak. We 

 believe ourselves now justified in stating that in numerous 

 cases the style is formed by the matter of the placenta. How 

 far the structure that obtains in Babingtonia may be general 

 in Myrtacese we have not leisure to enquire ; it certainly 

 exists in Bseckea, and probably in Callistemon also. 



The next point which ret|uires explanation, is our reason 

 for regarding this plant as a genus distinct from Bseckea. 

 The most simple way of justifying the measure is to place 

 before the reader a copy of the character of Bseckea properly 

 so called. In Endlicher's Genera Plantarum it is given 

 thus : — 



B^CKEA. Linn. Flores axillares, sessiles v. pedunculati. Cahjx tubo 

 turbinato, cum ovario connate, limbo supero v. semisupero, quinquefido, 

 persistente. Corollce petala 5, calycis fauci inserta, ejusdem laciniis 

 alterna, breviter unguiculata, orbiculata. Stamina 5 v. 10, cum petalis 

 inserta, iisdem breviora ; filamenta filiformi-subulata, libera; antherce 

 biloculares, longitudinaliter debiscentes. Ovarinm inferum v. semi-in- 

 ferum, bi-tri-quinqueloculare, loculis multiovulatis. Stylus filiformis ; 

 stigma capitatum. Capsula infera v. semisupera, bi-tri-quinquelocularis, 



apice loculicid^ dehiscens. Semina plurima, angulata, testa, crassa. 



Frutices Novce Hollandice et Asice tropicce y foliis oppositis, exstipulatis, 

 scepissime acerosis ; floribus axillaribiis, nunc solitariis, sessilibus v. pe- 

 dunculatis, nunc uinbellatis. Endlichev Genera, 6311. 



Now it must be evident that there are two material cir- 

 cumstances in which these plants differ. In the first place, 

 the stamens of Bseckea are equidistant, either alternately 

 opposed to the sepals and petals, or to only one of them. 

 Here, on the contrary, the stamens are collected in threes, 

 opposite the sepals, and are altogether deficient opposite the 

 petals. As a commencement of that grouping of stamens in 

 parcels, which in some Myrtaceous plants is so remarkable, 

 this is a character not to Idc passed lightly by. In the next 

 place, the anthers are more like those of a Fringe Myrtle 

 than a Bseckea, opening by pores at their apex, and not by 

 slits along their sides ; and they are inserted on the filaments, 

 as if the latter were half pushed into their base, instead of 

 rising from the side of the filament ; in fact they are a mani- 

 fest approach to the peculiar form manifest in the Melasto- 

 maceous order. We anticipate then no difference of opinion 

 as to the propriety of separating this plant from Bseckea pro- 



Fehruary, 1842. e 



