Mr. J. Miers on the genus Aptandra. 205 



are frequently monadelphous at base ; they have an ovarium 

 wholly superior in regard to the external calyx, often stipitate, 

 and sometimes presenting two suspended ovules ; the inflores- 

 cence accords, and the pedicels have deciduous bracts at their 

 base ; and the leaves are alternate with similar venation. Added 

 to these, it appears that in Aptandra the pedicel lengthens and 

 the calyx enlarges with the growth of the ovarium after impreg- 

 nation, as in Heisteria, and the resemblance in size and shape of 

 its flowers to those of Gomphandra is very remarkable. , But on 

 the other hand, in Olacacea, the appendages are evidently sterile 

 stamens, and in no degree partake of the nature and position of 

 the petaloid scales of Aptandra ; the stamens are very differently 

 constructed, the filaments are always separated from each other, 

 often indeed more or less slightly agglutinated to the corolla, 

 the bilobed anthers are distinct and introrse, and never open by 

 reflected valves, and the structure of the pollen is very different ; 

 the fully developed disk, that generally forms so striking a fea- 

 ture in that family, is also wanting in Aptandra. In Olacacea 

 we find the flowers generally issuing from bracteated, imbricated 

 buds, but in Aptandra we see nothing of this kind. In the in- 

 ternal structure of the ovarium of this genus a considerable dif- 

 ference is there seen from that existing in most of the genera of 

 the Olacace<2. In the former the pericarpial covering is so very 

 thin and transparent, that by transmitted light its internal struc- 

 ture may easily be distinguished, and the vacuity in the conical 

 base of the style is thus seen to be continuous with the cell of 

 the ovarium, in the upper part of which the apex of the placenta 

 is there seen to be quite free. In most of the genera of the 

 Olacaceee the ovarium is half enveloped by, and is partially 

 adnate to a fleshy cup-shaped disk, which rises to half the height 

 of the ovarium, and which supports the stamens and corolla, 

 while the upper moiety of the ovarium is surmounted by a very 

 thick fleshy gland, but no trace of any such hypogynous disk or 

 epigynous gland is visible in Aptandra. In the internal struc- 

 ture of the ovarium it presents however one of the strongest 

 points of approach to the Olacacece, but it must be remembered 

 that such a structure is not peculiar to that family, for it is 

 found to exist equally in the Santalacece, Styracece (excluding of 

 course Symplocacece) , Ebenacea, Myrsinaceae, and TheophrastacecB. 

 We must therefore look to this general character of an unilocular 

 ovarium, with a central placenta wholly distinct from the style, 

 and more or less free or combined with spurious dissepiments, as 

 belonging to a class composed of several orders, just as we unite 

 into groups or classes, numerous other families, possessed of a 

 bilocular or plurilocular ovarium, and others again that are uni- 

 locular with parietal placentations ; and it does not follow, that 



