166 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



new genus Saccopetalum ; but as is shewn in the Genera Plantarum 

 (Vol. I, p. 28), the only distinction between Saccopetalum and 

 Miliusa lies in the saccate petals of the former, whereas A. De Candolle 

 in his description no less plainly than in the accompanying figure has 

 given this very character as belonging to the only species of Miliusa 

 known up to the time when Bennett wrote, because what is now 

 Miliusa Boxburghiana, Hook. fil. & Thorn, was excluded and referred 

 to the factitious Hyalostemma. In the Flora Indica, Vol. I, p. 92, 

 the generic character was amended by restricting Miliusa to those 

 species that have not more than two ovules, but as further species 

 were examined this distinction seems to have been found untenable, 

 though retained in a modified form in the Flora of British India, due 

 warning being at the same time conveyed that Saccopetalum had been 

 reduced to Miliusa by Baillon (Hist, des Planfces I 244). 



Hook. fil. & Thorn, at the same time pointed out that Saccopetalum 

 tomentosum is intermediate between Saccopetalum and Miliusa, i.e. 

 presumably between Miliusa, affinis of Wight MSS. and the Javan 

 Saccopetalum Horsfieldii of Bennett. Baillon (I.e.) and Prantl. 

 (Nat. Pilanzenfam. Ill 2.29) do not even admit Saccopetalum 

 to the rank of a subgenus. Comparing the number of the ovules in 

 the different genera included in the "Genera Plantarum" under 

 Miliusete we hardly find sufficient ground for maintaining Saccopeta- 

 lum as an independent genus ; in Orophea, it is true, it is said that there 

 are never more than four ovules, and in Alphonsea always more than 

 four, with eight as a maximum ; but in Bocagea, which is admittedly 

 closely allied to Miliusa, they are given as 1 — 8. In the critical note 

 now attached to a sheet from his own Herbarium, written up at Kew 

 (by Sir J. D. Hooker probably) as ' Miliusa affinis, E. VvV, mentioned 

 above — Wight has observed '' On examining the ovaries of Miliusa 

 somewhat advanced, I find them containing 2-3 and, once or twice, 4 

 ovules superposed ; also probably there are two or three species 

 distinguished by the stamens being few or numerous and the carpels 

 glabrous or hairy ". Whether therefore we assume that the number 

 of maturing ovules differs in the species, or that it varies with the 

 individual, little weight can be attached to this character in dis- 

 criminating Miliusa from its allies. It appears, moreover, that in 

 Saccopetalum the number or the ovules is not always six or more ; in 

 the ' Flore Forestiere de la Cochinchine ' at plate 38 (1881) Pierre has 

 figured and described as Miliusa Bailloni a tree so closely allied to 

 Saccopetalum Horsfieldii, that the two could not properly be referred 

 to different genera, but in this plant it is expressly noted that the 

 ovules are not more than four in number. 



In attempting to frame an amended definition of the genus Miliusa 



