332 NOTE ON VAY^A AND RHTTIDANDRA. 



In this light we may admire the sagacity of Jussieu,* and. of De CandoUe, f who so 

 long ago indicated a probable afl&nity between Stj/ra,v and the Mellacece ; while the 

 younger De Candolle expresses a reasonable doubt whether his own tribe Pamphiliece, 

 annexed to Sti/racacece, may not rather belong to the former order. J The seed and 

 embryo of Styrax very well accord with those of most Meliece ; so do those of Foveolaria 

 as far as known; those of Pamphilia have not been investigated. The valvular, the 

 convolute-imbricative, and the quincuncial aestivation of the corolla, no less than the 

 union or the want of union between the base of the corolla and of the andrcecium, 

 which occur in different Meliaceous genera, are severally represented in different 

 species of Styrax. § The stellular pubescence or scurf of Styrax is of no particular 



calyx and the corolla hypogynous : but the specimens communicated from the Leyden herbarium plainly ex- 

 hibit the calyx adnate to the base of the ovary, the corolla, as in other cases, inserted at the line of junction. 

 In S. Benzoin, however, both the calyx and the corolla are completely free and hypogynous ; but this char- 

 acter does not hold in the few South American species I possess, which have a similar valvate corolla, 

 namely, S. Camporum, S. Gardnerianum, S. tomentosum, and S. ovatum ; although it must in some others, 

 since a species under the name of S. leiophylla is so figured in Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom, ed. 3, p. 593 b, 

 from a sketch by Mr. Miers, who, in the accompanying letter-press, inadvertently assigns an " ovary superior, 

 wholly free from the calyx," as a character of the order StyracecB. 



* " An genus potius polypetalum indeque Meliis affine ? " — Gen. PI. p. 156. 



t " An Sti/rax, Quivisiae et Turrcea habitu similis, hue revocanda." — Prodr. 1. p. 619. 



J Prodr. 8. p. 270. — Mr. Bentham, also, in Trans. Linn. Soc. 18. p. 231, indicates the alliance of Sty- 

 racece as an order, in the first instance with Ehenacece and Humiriacea, and in the next place with 

 Meliacect. 



§ M. Alph. De Candolle describes the estivation of the corolla of Slyrax, from S. officinale, as " parum 

 constante, initio sinistrorsum convoluta, demum subvalvari." I find it in that species, and all the North 

 American ones except S. Americanum, with the petals pretty strongly overlapping in the bud ; very rarely, 

 however, in an unbroken convolute series, but for the most part convolute-imbricate, — one petal being 

 wholly exterior while the adjacent one is wholly interior, — just as the resfivation of S. Japonicum is cor- 

 rectly figured by Zuccarini (in Fh Japon. 1. t. 23, f. 1) : and in some instances this varies to nearly the 

 regular quincuncial imbrication. But in Styrax Americanum the sEstivation is valvular, with one or two of 

 the conjoined margins more or less introfle.xed, often unequally so ; while in S. Benzoin, as also in all of 

 the few South American species I have examined, it is more strictly valvular. Mr. Miers must have contem- 

 plated these species only (overlooking Pterostyrax and Halesia likewise) in attributing a valvate oestivation 

 to the corolla of the whole order Styracea, as he limits the group (in Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom, 1. c). 

 IMoreover, although the androecium is sometimes unconnected with the corolla, as in Styrax Benzoin, 

 already mentioned, yet it is far from being " generally free from the petals " throughout the genus. 



A few other discrepances in the characters of Styrax, of more or less importance, may be noticed in 

 passing. Endlicher (I cannot at this moment ascertain whether the observation originated with him) gives 

 the character, " ovula inferiora horizontalia vel adscendentia, superiora soepius pendula " ; and this 



