88 Linnean Society. [Dec. 15, 



Of the latter genus two species are characterized : 

 P. orbiculatum, foliis ovato-orbiculatis obtusissimis subtus ramulisque in- 

 canis, ovario bispido. — A tshrub ten or twelve feet in height, found in 

 dry Savannahs on the Padawire River, Scliomhurgk. 



P. acuminatum, foliis ovatis oblongisve acuminatis subtus vix pallidioribus, 

 ovario glabro. — A tree of about thirty feet high, growing on the high 

 banks of the Rio Negro, Schomhurgk, n, 970. 



Mr. Bentham suggests that the three tribes above characterized 

 may perhaps, when better known, be considered as distinct orders. 

 He thinks, however, that the species of Olax in v/hich the dissepi- 

 ments of the ovary are almost entirely obliterated form a transition 

 to Opiliea: ; that Gomphandra connects Opiliece with Icacinece ; and 

 that Pogopetalum is in many respects equally allied to Olacea and to 

 Icacinece. He states that Olacecs approach most nearly to the poly- 

 petalous orders with which Olacinea have been compared ; but he 

 cannot admit of the supposed affinity between them and Aurantiacece. 

 Humiriacece are, he thinks, among Dichlamydeous plants, those which 

 come nearest to Olacinea ; and he considers Styraceee (including 

 SymplocecB and Halesiaceee of Don) to be very near both to Humi- 

 riace(B and Olacineee. Cornece and some other albuminous orders 

 have also, in his opinion, some relation to them, but much more 

 distant. 



He considers the nearest approach to Santalacece to occur in the 

 tribe Opiliece, where the caljrx is reduced to little more than a dila- 

 tation of the torus ; and if it be admitted that there are true Santa- 

 laceous genera with a superior ovary, and if he is right in supposing 

 that, in the young buds of Opilia and Cansje?-a, there is more than one 

 ovule, these two genera become so nearly intermediate, in his opi- 

 nion, between Olacea and Santalacece, as to have nearly as much 

 claim to be associated with the latter as with the former. 



Lastly, he states that Icacinea; recede from the two other tribes in 

 the adherence of the placenta to one angle of the ovarium, and in 

 the seed being consequently pendulous and not erect; a circumstance 

 which would have led him to propose it as a distinct order, were it 

 not for the remarkable resemblance in the floral parts to some true 

 Olacineous genera, and the absence of any other distinctive character 

 of importance. 



In the notes to the paper Mr, Bentham characterizes several un- 

 described species of Olax in the following terms : 



0. nana (Wall. Cat. Herb. Ind. n. 678-1.) suffruticosa ? glabriuscula, ra- 

 mis erectis parce ramosis, foliis subsessilibus oblongis lanceolatisve ob- 



