90 NEILGHERRY PLANTS. 
GORDONIA. : 
Calyx of 5 rounded coriaceous outwardly-silky sepals, with semilar external deciduous bracteoles 
Petals 5, connected together at the base. Stamens numerous: filaments united at the base with the claws. 
of the petals (and hence monadelphous or somewhat 5-adelphous, according to the degree of union among 
the claws of the petals) : anthers ovate, oscillatory. Styles combined to the apex, crowned with a peltate 
4-5 lobed stigma. Capsules 4-5-celled, 4-5-valved, loculicidal. Seeds 2-4 in each cell, attached to the 
central column, terminated by a leafy wing: albumen none: embryo straight radicle, oblong: cotyledons fo- 
liaceous, wrinkled and plated lengthwise.—Trees or shrubs, with the appearance of Camellia or Thea, Pe- 
duncles axillary, 1-flowered.— W. and A. Prod. p. 87. 
Though the number of species of this genus be small, they are widely distributed, Virginia, Carolina, 
Jamaica, Nepaul, Ceylon, and the Peninsula have each one or more species. They are all trees or large 
shrubs with handsome camellia like flowers. All the Indian species, that I have seen are trees,and the one 
here figured often attains a large size. 
Gorponia ostusa (Wall.:) leaves cuneate-oblong, A pretty large tree, widely distributed over the 
obtuse or with a blunt acumination, with shallow Hills, found in Jungles, on every part of them I have 
serratures, glabrous : peduncles short, not so long as yet visited ; flowering during the rainy season, and ri- 
the petioles : petals obcordate, slightly united at the peningits fruit during the months of March and 
or stamens somewhat pentadelphous.— W. and A. April. 
XIV.—OLACINES. 
This is a small family of trees and shrubs, but extensively distributed, as it species 
are found more or less abundantly in every tropical country. In regard to its relations to 
the other dicotyledonous families, considerable difference prevails among Botanists. 
Mirbel, who first established it as a distinct order, placed it among the polypelalous tribes, 
in the position it here occupies, near Aurantiacee. Brown had previously placed Olaz, the 
type of the order, as an allied genus at the end of Santalacee, but differing from true Suik 
talaceous plants in having both a Calyx and Corolla, and asuperior or free ovary similar to 
that shown in both Gomphandra and Stemonurus while that of Santalacee is inferior or 
adherent to the tube of the Calyx as seen in the accompanying figure of Bursinopetalum. 
Nearly all writers subsequent to Mirbel have followed his arrangement. Mr. Bentham in 
an admirable Memoir published in 1841, in the Linnean Transactions, coincides in the 
view taken by Mr. Brown, a view which is greatly strengthened by my new genus 
as well as by Alphonse De Candolle’s new genus Hyphocarpus, which has a similar 
structure; for myself, I now feel quite satisfied that the proper station for this order is 
beside Santalacee and Daphnoidee in Endlicher’s class Thymalaee ; nor do I apprehend the 
double floral envelope can offer any solid objection to this arrangement, since the glands in- 
serted on the throat of the calyxof Santalum, Daphue, Gnidia, &c., and the calyculus of 
Choritrum may all be adduced as instances of analogous structure, while in the much more 
important matter of structure of the ovary, ovyulum, and seed, the Olacinee closely associate 
with these orders, and have scarcely any analogy with the orders among which Mirbel and 
others have placed them. The same remark applies to Loranthacee which is truly a 
Thymaleous family, 
< The plants of this order, though interesting in a Botanical point of view, have 
little to recommend them to the favour of the amateur. Stemonrus, when in full flower, is 
