APPENDIX. No. V. 455 
entirely distinct. This genus is placed by M. de Jussieu in Portulacacese ; 
but the alternation of its stamina with the segments of the perianthium, a part 
of its structure never before adverted to, as well as their insertion, seem to 
prove its nearer affinity to Phytolacca.* 
Still, however, the lateral stigma, the spiral cotyledons, and want of albumen 
in Petiveria, remove it to some distance from the other genera of Phytolaceze, 
and at the same time connect it with Seguieria, with which also it agrees in 
the alliaceous odour of the whole plant. 
The affinity of Segwieria has hitherto remained undetermined, and is here 
proposed from the examination of three species lately discovered in Brazil, one 
of which has exactly the habit of Rivina octandra, and all of which agree with 
that plant, as well as with several others belonging to the order, in the very 
minute pellucid dots of their leaves. 
Petiveria and Seguieria may therefore form a sub-division of Phytolacez : - 
And another section of this order exists i New Holland, of which the two 
genera differ from each other in number of stamina as remarkably as Petiveria 
and Seguieria. 
Of the Monocotyledonous orders, the first on which I have any remarks to 
offer, is that of 
PALM. The collection, however, contains no satisfactory specimens of 
any plant of this family except of El@is guineensis, the Maba of the natives, 
or Oil Palm, which appears to be common along the whole of this line of coast, 
In Professor Smith’s journal it is stated that a single plant of the Maba Palm+ 
was cut down, from which Mr. Lockhart informs me that both the male and 
female spadices preserved in the collection were obtained. This fact seems to 
decide that Elzeis is moncecious, which, indeed, Jacquin, by whom the genus 
* Ancistrocarpus of M. Kunth (Noy. Gen. et Sp. PI. Orb. Nov. 2, p. 186) belongs to 
Phytolacez, though its stamina are described to be opposite to the segments of the 
calyx: and it is not improbable that Milius of Loureiro (Flor, Cechin. p. 302) whose 
habit, according to the description, is that of Giseckia, from which it differs nearly as 
Ancistrocarpus does from Microtea, or Rivina octandra from the other species of its 
<enus, may also belong to this order. 
+ Maba is, perhaps, rather applied to the fruit than to the tree: Emba being, ac- 
cording to Merolla, the name of the single nut, and Cuehie that of the entire cluster ; 
for the Palm itself, he-has no name. Vide Piccardo Relaz. p. 122. 
