MILIUSA AND SACCOPETALUM. 167 



two special difficulties are encountered ; the one is due to the obscuri- 

 ties, above stated, which surround De Candolle's type ; the other is 

 presented by the genus Phcsanth'is of Hook. fil. and Thomson (Flora 

 Indica p. 146). Phasanthus cannot be discriminated from Miliusa, 

 whether Saccopetalum be merged in Miliusa, or accepted, save by the 

 structure of the staminary whorl ; but Baillon {Adansonia viii 1868, 

 pp. 312 et seq.) — has given reasons for thinking that this character 

 does not in fact possess the value formerly assigned to it, and Phcean- 

 thus is so nearly akin to the type of Saccopetalum in habit, in the 

 structure of the outer floral whorls, and of the ovary, that this genus 

 also should perhaps be reduced to Miliusa. 



The arrangement of the highly natural but difficult family of the 

 Anonaceae might possibly be simplified, if, instead of attempting to 

 distinguish between ' sepals', and ' petals ', the floral envelope were 

 treated, for taxonomic purposes, as a single perianth, consisting of 

 subsidiary, sometimes sharply differentiated, whorls. 



In the subjoined description, for the sake of convenience, the 

 accepted characterization of the perianth whorls has been followed i 

 the species placed under Plueanthus of Hooker and Thomson have, for 

 the same reason, been excluded. 



MILIUSA 



Genus Anonacearum imprimis ex-indicatione Leschenaultuab Alph, 

 Candolles in Mem. Soc. Phys. et Hist. Nat. Genev. vol. V (1832) p. 37, 

 t. iii supra speciem unicam Indicam constitutum, nunc propter plures 

 species nuper recognitas iterum ut sequitur breviter descriptum. 



Flores hermaphroditi vel unisexuales, in cymis, vel fasciculis 

 dispositi, aut in axillis solitarii. Sepala tria, inconspicua, basi vis 

 connata. Petala, aestivatione valvata, per duo verticillos valde dissimi- 

 los disposita, exteriora parva sepaloidea, nonnunquam refracta, 

 interiora majora, vix androecium celantia, membranacea vel hyalina, 

 nee unguiculata, nee ad apicem producta, versus basin concava vel 

 saccata, rarius explanata, margin ibus plus minus colnurentibus, raris- 

 sime discretis. 



Torus productus subglobosus vel cylindricus, spice aliquando 

 truncato. Stamina 8-12, aut ad 36 in gradibus disposita, ver in- 

 definita antheroc subdidyinaj, loculis contiguis ovatis vei rotundatis, 

 extrorsae, saepius minutaT; filamenta manifesta, attenuata, vel con- 

 nectivo incrassato, plus minus apiculato, vix superne dilitato. 

 Carpella numero indefinita stipitata, matura forma oblonga, ellip- 

 soidea, vel globosa, parum succulenta, indehiseentia, in pseudocarpum 

 nunquam coalita : — ovula in venterali sutura (an semper '?) affixa« 

 saepissims bina (rarius unico per abortuin superstite), vel indefinita ;— - 



