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ON HIPPOCRATEACEyE. 



"We are glad to be enabled to give the following abstract of Mr. Miers' 

 important paper, read before the Linnean Society on June 1st, based on 

 a long and hiborious examination chiefly of the South American species of the 

 Order. Tlie history of the family shows the widely-divergent opinions of 

 numerous botanists in regard to its atiinities, — the absolute want of know- 

 ledge to guide these opinions at last culmiuiiting in the extinction of tlie 

 Hippocrateacea by the authors of the new ' Genera Plantarum,' who have 

 reduced it to a mere tribe of the Cdadracece ; and not only so, but have 

 amalgamated the several genera previously established into two, viz. Hip- 

 pocratea and Salacia. The large amount of evidence here presented will, 

 however, show its right to stand as a distinct Natural Order, having, in 

 fact, little connection with CdastracetE in any well-digested system of 

 arrangement. 



The chief characters in its floral structure consist in having 5 sepals, 

 5 alternate petals imbricated in sestivation, and only 3 stamens (very 

 rarely 5) ; the most important feature is the hypogynous disk, variable in 

 shape, but constantly placed between the stamens and petals ; the ovary is 

 always superior, usually 3-locular, with definite anatropous ovules fixed in 

 the axis. The mode of growth of the ovary varies greatly, and on these 

 diflerences of development the author divided the family into three separate 

 tribes : — i. Hippocratefe, where, in the progress of growth, the axis of the 

 ovary never lengthens, remaining completely atrophied, the cells growing 

 upwards vastly, sometimes to a hundred times the length of the axis at the 

 maturity of the flower, thus producing 3 distinct capsules from a single 

 ovary, which sometimes open 2-valvately and have winged seeds, or are 

 indehiscent, with unciform seeds borne upon a carinated or alar support : 

 upon such dift'erences five several genera are established. 2. Toiitelefe, 

 distinguished by a drupaceous fruit, often of large size, the growth of an 

 ovary wherein the axis lengthens commensurately with the cells, the fruit 

 being thus 3-locular, with several seeds, which in most cases are covered 

 by an ariUine, a fleshy complete coating, resolving itself into a mucilagi- 

 nous pulp that envelopes the seeds: this tribe consists of eight genera. 

 3. Kippistice, remarkable for a floral development hitherto unknown 

 among Dicotyledoues, but long ago described by Mr. Eobert Brown in 

 Monocotyledones ; here the stigmata, instead of alternating as usual with 

 the stamens, and standing opposite to the cells of the ovary, are opposite 

 to the stamens, and alternate with the cells of the ovary ; the fruit is dru- 

 paceous, variable in the position of the seeds, but with characters resem- 

 bling those of Tontdiece : this tribe consists of three genera. There are 

 thus seventeen genera in all, with well-marked characters, which were sepa- 

 rately illustrated by as many drawings, each amply explained by analytical 

 figures. The numerous facts here shown in regard to structure are, for 

 the most part, hitherto undescribed, many being derived from analyses 

 made of plants in the living state. In summarizing these details, the 

 author pointed out the many salient points of distinction in the structure 

 of Hippocratencece and Celastracece. 



1. In the former, the stamens are generally anisomerous in regard to 

 the petals (3 to 5) ; in the latter, they are constantly isomerous, with sta- 

 mens equal to, or double the number of the petals. 



