68 A NEW GENUS OF CELASTRINEiE FROM NEW CALEDONIA. 



secund deflexed leaves, wliich are closely imbricated, and not at all 

 convex. 



With his partiality for condensing species, Mr. Mitten, in his paper 

 on AdelantJms (Journ. Liiin. Soc. n. 28, April, 1864) quotes P. spha- 

 lera and P. unclformk, Hook. f. and T., as synonyms of Adelanlhus 

 Magellanicus. To my eyes the three seem as distinct as the majority of 

 Hepaticce. He also clubs together A.falcatus, Hook. Muse. Ex. t. 89, 

 in which the leaves are crenulate-dentate, and the involucre rough with 

 minute papillae, and A. occlusus, Hook. f. and T. Cryp. Ant. t. 62. f. 8, 

 in which the involucre is smooth and subcyathiform, and the leaves 

 entire. After such an example, is it too much to ask an arrest of judg- 

 ment before Taylor's species, cancelled in the ' Flora Novae Zelandiae ' 

 and ' Flora Tasmanica,' are consigned to oblivion ? 



In one genus only, Lo'phocolea, we find twenty species, figured by 

 Hook. f. and Taylor, reduced to Jive, nor is one of these mentioned 

 even as a variety. Has Mr. Mitten no fear that some coming Nemesis 

 may, in like manner, slaughter his multitudinous progeny of critical 

 species, so few of which contemporary writers have been in a position 

 to verify ? 



A NEW GENUS OF CELASTRINEiE FROM NEW 

 CALEDONIA. 



By Berthold Seemann, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



Amongst the plants collected in 1774 in New Caledonia by William 

 Anderson, there is an unnamed one, which has long engaged my at- 

 tention. It is woody, glabrous, has alternate ovate-oblong or oblong- 

 leaves, with entire margin and pinnated venation ; the inflorescence is 

 axillary and cymose, and the flowers themselves are sessile and very 

 small. The calyx is 5-lobed, the lobes being ovate-linear, but there 

 are no petals nor stamens on the specimen, and it remains, therefore, 

 an open question, whether the plant is apetalous and polygamous or 

 not. The ovary is 2-celled, and crowned by two long divergent stig- 

 mas ; each cell has a solitary ovule ascending from the axis ; and the 

 fruit is an indehiscent, 2-celled, 2-seeded drupe, the seeds being with- 

 out an arillus, and albuminous ; whilst the embryo is straight. 



Though there may be doubts about the nature of the petals and 



