951 
ON THE GENUS VILLARESIA, WITH -A DESCRIPTION 
OF A NEW SPECIES. 
By Joun Migrs, F.R.S., F.L.S., ETO. 
(PLATE XXI.) 
In the Annals Nat. Hist. ser. 3, ix. 107, I published a monograph 
of this genus, of which only the typical Chilean species was previously 
known ; but I there described eight others, six of them being of Brazilian 
origin. Another species, which forms the subject of the present paper, is 
from the latter country, and is deserving of especial notice on account of 
its constantly 2-locular ovary. Jussieu, who described and figured the 
typical plant, rightly placed the genus in Aguifoliacee, an arrangement 
adopted by Endlicher, Lindley, and Reissek. From the examination 
of a cultivated Brazilian species, I showed, as Jussieu had suspected, 
that its ovary is normally and sometimes actually plurilocular, and that 
when it is 1-celled, as generally occurs, this is only in consequence of 
the abortion of its other cells. From this fact, coupled with the know- 
ledge that its ovules are always somewhat collaterally suspended from 
near the summit of the dissepiment, and its petals extremely imbrieated 
in sestivation, there remained no doubt that the position of Villaresia 
in Aquifoliacee had been correctly determined by the botanists above 
mentioned. Notwithstanding this positive evidence, the authors of 
the new * Genera Plantarum ' have attempted to reverse this decision 
by placing Villaresia in Olacacee, arranging it in their tribe “ Zea- 
cinee ;” they offer no new evidence in justification, but assign as 
their only reason for this singular change in the parisien of the genus, 
* ob ovarium l-loculare ad Olacineas referetur." I will therefore en- 
deavour to prove satisfactorily that Vil/aresia has no connection what- 
ever with that family. 
This brings us back to the consideration of the structural differences 
between the Icacinacee and Olacacee, a subject thoroughly investi- 
gated by me many years since. The former group was first established 
by Mr. Bentham, twenty-four years ago, as a tribe of the latter family, 
but at that time, as little was known concerning either of them, this 
was accepted as a satisfactory arrangement. In 1851, after a long and 
careful study of the plants of these two groups, I arrived at a very 
VOL. II. [SEPTEMBER 1, 1864. 8 
