STJCCINCT NOTES ON THE AFFINITY OF THE PLANTAGlNEiG. 341 



recently completed second volume of Bentham and Hooker's 

 " Genera " has this group of plants obtained a firmer standing in the 

 ordinal series, while innumerable new observations on the limits of 

 Genera and Orders, as well as on their mutual relation, stamp that 

 great work as one of the most important and original that has appeared 

 in this century. It may, therefore, not be out of place to offer my 

 own views on the alliance of these plants, especially as they are left 

 by Bentham and Hooker more isolated than before It must, however, 

 be apparent to any observer who has had to deal with new genera or 

 to place old ones in moi'e proper positions (and thereby to aid in cir- 

 cumscribing more distinctly the limits of the Families of plants), that 

 only when the whole vegetation of every country shall have become 

 known, an ultimately settled place can be assigned to any group of 

 plants even in a linear arrangement. The discovery of new forms of 

 vegetable life in many yet untrodden parts of the globe may yet shed 

 additional light on the true affinity of the Order alluded to on this 

 occasion. So far as the literature is accessible here to me, I find 

 that Adanson placed the Plantagimce (and this not without some 

 reason) among his JasminecR ; Jussieu and also De CandoUe brought 

 them next to Plumhagineae, Nyctaginem, and Amarantacece, and 

 in this they are almost followed by R. Brown ; Bartling 

 arranged them with Glohulariea. besides ; D. Don well pointed out the 

 affinity to Primulacete, in which view Lindley concurred; Al. Braun 

 and Hanstein inserted them between Selagiyie^ and Verheyiacece ; 

 Grisebach put them near Campanulacece and Plumhaginem ; J. Agardh 

 has them close to the last-mentioned Order and Jasminece ; Martiua 

 inserted them next to Hydrophyllece and Convolvulacece ; Miquel found 

 a place for them betwixt Lahiatce and Scrophularince ; Walpers inter- 

 polates them between SalvadoracecB and Plumbaginece ; Meisner ranges 

 them with Plumlaginece and Salvadoracets ; Asa Gray left them be- 

 tween Styracece and Prirmilacece ; Le Maout and Decaisne assigned to 

 them a seat between NydaginecB and Lahiatoi ; Reichenbach simply 

 included them once in Primulacea ; Brongniart placed them in close 

 vicinity to V erhenacece ; and Cosson and Germain arranged them 

 between PrimulacecR and llicinece. In reviewing the whole of these 

 inconsonant opinions, it may be affirmed that the affinity of the 

 PlantaginecB to the Primulacece, only is safely established, while the 

 links which connect them in other directions with the great chains of 

 affinities have either been lost or have never been recognised. 



Having had many opportunities of giving consideration to the 

 systematic positions of such Orders as are represented in Australia, it 

 has occurred to me that the Plantaginea might with advantage 

 be placed in proximity to the Loganiaceous plants, although this 

 would indicate only one of the threads by which they are connected 

 with other ordinal groups. To vindicate this proposition, I would 

 point to the conformity of some of the genera of the two Orders in 

 respect to division and aestivation of both calyx and corolla, the 

 number and insertion of the stamens, the position and dehiscence of 

 the anthers, the two-celled ovary, the simple style, the axillary 

 placentae, the fleshy albuminous seeds, the straight embryo, and the 

 inferior radicle. "What led me first to trace out this mutual relation 

 was the form and peltate attachment of the seeds, which are of the 



