CiNCHONALES,] 



COLUMELLIACE.E. 



759 



Order CCXCII. COLUMELLIACEiE.— Columelliads. 



Columellieae, Don. in Edinh. new Phil. Journ. Dec. (1828).— Col umelliacece, Ed. pr. Ko. clxxxii. ■ 

 Endl. Goi. p. 745 ; Meisner, p. 256. ' 



BiAGyosis.—ClncJional Exorjen's, with cplpetalous stamens, smuous anthers hursthuj 

 lowjitudiiudly, and xinsymmetrkal flowers. 



Evergreen shrubs, or trees. Leaves opposite, without stipules, entire or serrated. 

 Flowers yellow, terminal. Calyx superior, 5-parted. Corolla rotate, 5-8-pai-ted, with 

 an imbricated aestivation. 

 Stamens 2, inserted in the 

 throat, alternate with the 

 segments of the corolla ; 

 anthers roundish, 3-lobed, 

 bursting externally, each 

 consisting of three pairs of 

 naiTow, someAvhat sinuous 

 cells, which open longitudi- 

 nally, and which are placed upon a solid 

 fleshy connective. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, 

 with an indefinite number of ovules ; style 

 simple, smooth ; stigma capitate, 2-lobed. 

 Disk epigynous, fleshy. Fruit capsular, 2- 

 celled, many-seeded, with both septicidal and 

 locuKcidal dehiscence ; testa pohshed ; em- 

 bryo taper, erect, in the axis of fleshy 

 albumen, with oval obtuse cotyledons, and 

 a taper radicle longer than the cotyledons. 



The late Professor Don, who first noticed 

 this Order, thinks it near Jasmines, with 

 which it corresponds " in the structure and 

 aestivation of the corolla, in the bilocular 

 ovary, and erect (?) ovules : and it agrees 

 both vv'ith them and S}Tiuga in the structure 

 and dehiscence of the capsule. The Order 

 differs, however, essentially from Jasmine - 

 worts, by having an adherent ovary, by the 

 presence of a perigpious (?) disk, by the 

 undivided stigma, and, lastly, by having an 

 inferior capsule with polyspermous cells," 

 He Avas probably led to this notion by having 

 included in his Columelliads the genus Meno- 

 dora, which is a genuine member of the 

 Jasminaceous Order. He also supposed that 



an affinity could be traced with Halesia ; and Endlicher, acting upon this supposition, 

 has placed the genus as an anomalous form of Ebenads. Meisncr adopts Don's first 

 view. But it is very clear that none of the Orders thus referred to can really be in 

 the neighbourhood of Columellia, which may be almost described as a monopetalous 

 Onagrad. Its uadefinite seeds are entirely at variance with all the tendencies of 

 Ebenads and Jasmiueworts, to say nothing of its jnferior ovary, 

 is 

 between Columellia, &c., ana any 



Fig. DV. 



At the same time it 



impossible to say where it really ought to stand, for there seems no great resemblance 

 ..jtween Columellia, &c., and any other Order yet described. In this uncertainty I 

 leave it by the side of Cranberries and Cinchonads, to either of which, and especially to 

 the latter, it may be compared. The most striking feature m its structure is its 

 stamens ; these curious bodies, rudely represented in the Flora Pcrurunia, are 

 apparently composed each of three stamens firmly consolidated ; for each anther has 

 6 cells arranged in 3 pairs upon a 3-Iobed fleshy connective, and turned towards 

 the corolla. Now this indicates an irregularity of structure of a most unusual kind, 

 and to which I find no parallel ; in order to reduce such a structure to regularity, we 



Fig. DV.— ColumeUia oblonga. 1. a flower; 2. half an ovary ; 3. a fruit. 



