318 DESCRIPTION OF SOME NEW PLANTS 
they ought to form a distinct Order (Ophiriacee), their structure being 
intermediate between that of Hamamelidacee and Bruniacee, the ten- 
dency being greatest towards the latter; * but if Harvey in his cha- 
racter of Grubbia is correct in stating that the anthers open by valves,t 
the affinity, I should think, is more with the former group ; and when 
better known they will most probably be referred thither. 
It is then from a consideration of all these eireumstances that I feel 
myself justified in uniting the two tribes, there being in reality no 
single point of structure by which to distinguish them, except, indeed, 
the difference in size in the embryo, which in other cases is not con- 
sidered of ordinal importance. 
The genus Helwingia, which at present constitutes a distinet Order, 
placed by Endlicher in his “Genera Plantarum” at the end of Santa- 
lacee, but removed in his * Enchiridion Botanicum " to the end of 
Bruniacee, and by Lindley near to Garryacee, seems, notwithstanding 
its peculiar mode of inflorescence and unisexual flowers, to be very 
closely related to Hamamelidacee. Besides the former peculiarity, 
which is of no ordinal importance, there is no other character by which 
to separate them; for we have among the Hamamelidacee a tendency 
genera, as we have seen, are apetalous. Then the stipules, the adhe- 
rent ovary, the epigynous disk, the solitary pendulous anatropal ovules, 
the styles covered with verrucose papille on their inner face, the sub- 
capsular fruit, consisting of three or four one-seeded cocci, the minute 
embryo at the apex of solid fleshy albumen, and the superior radicle, 
all indicate the natural tendency of Helwingia towards Hamamelidacee. 
Decaisne, to whom we are indebted for an excellent figure and descrip- 
tion of the the plant,f did not overlook this affinity, but thought it 
sufficiently distinct to constitute a separate order. 
Sedgwickia was established as a genus by Griffith in the 19th vol. of 
the “ Asiatic Researches,” and by him considered to be nearly allied to 
Bucklandia of Brown; but in a later paper in the same work, || it is 
stated by the author to be identical with Altingia of Noronha. Now 
Altingia is referred by Blume to Liquidambar, and therefore the three 
* puer ipa € ot p- 625. + The Genera of South African Plants, p. 410. 
. nat. 6, 
i T cdm rp ure in what vol. ; as my 'eopy of the Essay in which he makes the 
statement is a detached one. The paper is entitled “ Some account of the a 
- Collection, brought from the eastward by Dr. Cantor. By W. Griffith, E:L.S 
