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VIII. A Review of the Natural Order Myrsineee. By M. Alphonse De 

 Candolle, Honorary Professor and one of the Directors of the Botanic 

 Garden at Geneva. 



Read March 5th, and April 16th, 1833. 



During a visit to England, with the view of assisting Dr. Wallich in the 

 distribution of the great Herbarium given, since that time, by the Honourable 

 East India Company to the Linnean Society, this celebrated botanist did me 

 the honour of entrusting to me the care of describing several new species col- 

 lected by him, and among others, those belonging to the natural order of 

 Myrsinecv. My first intention was, not to extend my researches beyond the 

 Indian species ; but I was soon convinced that such an addition to a limited 

 order like this could not be made without reviewing the whole of it, as I had 

 Jilready done in a similar case in the natural order of Anonacece*. It led me, 

 of course, to a better classification. I must confess, however, that doubts still 

 remain as to the precise limits of some genera, on account of the difficulty of 

 ascertaining from dry specimens the number and insertion of the ovula. 



This natural order was named by Ventenat Ophiospermes, and by some 

 botanists Ardisiacew ; but Mr. Brown, who in a few words in his Prodromus 

 Florec Novcv Hollandiiv threw considerable light on the subject, proposed for 

 it the name of Myrsinew, which has been since generally adopted. 



Their place in the very intricate net of affinities is now well established 

 between Sapoteee and Primulacece, notwithstanding their remarkable analogy 

 with another remote order, that of Rliamnetv. Were the relative affinities of 

 plants to be represented upon a sphere, as the position of islands, these different 

 orders would be all under the same degree of latitude, but Rhamnece under a 

 very distant longitude. 



MyrsinecB differ from Sapotece by the constant deficiency of stamens alter- 



* " M^moire sur la Famille des Anonac^es. et en particulier sur cellesdu Pays des Birmans," in the 

 M^moires de la Socii'tt! de Physique et d'Hisloire Naturelle de Geneve, vol. v. 



