338 DR. SEEMANN’S SYNOPSIS OF THE 
generic character of Thea: for instance, the words * Perianthium 6-partitum,..... 
planum ...." are altered into “Per. 5-partitum;” the number “6” assigned to the 
petals is struck out; to the description of the stamens is added “filamenta corollæ 
basi inserta,” &c.; so that, if he had brought out a seventh edition, these corrections 
would have been introduced, and they would have tended to improve the limits of the two - 
genera. But even giving Linnæus credit for all these intended improvements, his generic 
characters of the two contain little that either Camellia and Thea do not share with other 
Ternstræmiaceæ, or that more ample materials have shown to be correct. There are, how- 
ever, two characters upon which he relies to distinguish these genera which have never 
been shaken—the calyx of Camellia is termed polyphyllous and deciduous, whilst that of 
Thea is described with a definite number of persistent sepals. Morphologists may possibly 
object to attach much importance to them, as the calyx of Thea is clad with deciduous 
bracts, and what is termed a polyphyllous calyx in Camellia may also be explained as a 
simple calyx surrounded by bracts. This view of the subject would reduce the whole 
difference to one of time,—the sepals remaining longer attached to the plant in Thea than 
in Camellia. Systematic botanists, however, are compelled to take a practical as well as 
a theoretical view of such questions, and that is the course here pursued. 
DeCandolle, who wrote in 1824, and who looked upon Camellia and Thea as forming å 
distinct natural order, chiefly differing from Ternstremiacee by the absence of albumen, 
thus defines (Prodr. i. pp. 529, 530) the genera in question :— 
CAMELLIA, Linn. Tua, Kempf. 
Calyx imbricatus, nempe bracteis sepalisve non- Calyx 5-6-sepalus. Petala 6-9 ima basi subco- 
nullis accessoriis cinctus. Stamina basi poly- hærentia 2-3-serialia. Stamina basi sublibera. 
adelpha aut monadelpha. Antheræ ellipsoideæ. Antheræ subrotundæ. Capsula 3-cocca, septis 
Capsula valvis medio septiferis, axim triquetrum valvaribus, nempe a valvularum marginibus zs 
liberum post dehiscentiam relinquentibus. troflexis formatis. 
: DeCandolle places under Camellia one species which has no right to be there, viz. Camel- 
lia axillaris, Roxb. (=Polyspora axillaris, Sweet), while under Thea he ranges Loureiro's 
Thea oleosa, which I hold to be the old oil-seeded Camellia Sasanqua of Thunberg; and it 
s possible that in drawing up his generic characters the presence of those plants may have 
influenced him in some degree, compelling us to make some allowance in criticising them- 
He terms the stamens of Camellia polyadelphous : that term must, I think, be suppressed, 
as it cannot be applied to those of any true species of that genus, unless we are prepared 
to apply it tothe result of the mechanical rupture of the tube of the monadelphous stamens, 
witnessed in Camellia Sasanqua when the petals begin to fade, bend back, and become 
detached from the stamens. In Thea he describes the stamens as nearly free, but the 
outer series of them is always monadelphous, as in Camellia; and, following Gærtner, he 
ee "m cells of the eapsule, unlike those of Camellia, to be formed by the edges of the 
épris bent inwards. The latter are, however, exactly formed as those of Camellia, 
pie e Fare on the middle of the valve. DeCandolle has therefore not discovered 
= racter by which Camellia and Thea could be distinguished from each 
We now come to W. B. Booth, who in 1830 published an able history of the gne? 
