404 LII. HAMAMELIDE.E (OLIVER). 



late, longitudinally stigmatose style (or stigmas terminal). Ovules 

 (solitary or) indefinite ; placentation axile. Fruit a capsule. Seeds 

 albuminous. — Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, stipulate. 

 Flowers capitate spicate or racemose. 



A small Natural Order, widely spread, but absent from South. America, Europe, and 

 Australia. One, genus is peculiar to the Cape, another to Madagascar, and Myro- 

 thamnvs, the only representative in Tropical Africa, occurs also in Madagascar and at 

 the Cape. 



1. MYROTHAMNTTS, Welw. ; Benth. et Hook. f. 

 Gen. Plant, i. 1005. 



Flowers dioecious, achlamydeous, spicate. Male flowers : Stamens 

 4-8 ; filaments short or elongate, free ; anthers oblong*, tetragonous or 

 obovate-cuneate, 2-celled, basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally; connec- 

 tive shortly produced at the apex. Female flowers: Ovary 3— 4-car- 

 pellary, 3— 4-gonous, 3— 4-celled below, with <x> ovules on an axile pla- 

 centa, carpels free above, longitudinally stigmatose on the inner face. 

 Capsule coriaceous, in M. Jidbcllifolia dehiscing above by the ventral 

 sutures of the free apices of the carpels ; many-seeded. Seeds (in 

 same species) " minute, ovoid, with copious fleshy, albumen." — Shrubs 

 from 1 or 2 to 6 or 8 ft. ; wholly glabrous, abounding in a balsamic 

 resin, rigid, erect, with strict opposite branches. Leaves opposite, sub- 

 sessile, flabellate-cuneiform, crenate-dentate, plicate-nerved (or linear 

 denticulate at apex). Stipules minute, subulate. Spikes erect, cylin- 

 drical, terminal. 



But two species are known — the following and another, Myosurandra moscliata, 

 Baill. in Adansonia, ix % t. 8, peculiar to Madagascar. 



1. M. flabellifolia, Welw. Apont. Phi/toy. Angol. Shrub varying* 

 from 1—7 ft., extremities early woody, tetragonous, bark Assuring lon- 

 gitudinally. Leaves J-J in. long more or less, \-^ in. broad, toothed, 

 during the dry season closely plicate. Bracts broadly ovate. Stamens 

 4-8 (5) ; anthers, subsessile. Ovary 3-celled, carpels connate half- 

 way. — Linn. Trans, xxvii. 23. t. 8. Cliffortia? Jldbellifolia, Sond. Fl. 

 Gap. ii. 597. 



Lower Guinea. Pungo Andongo, 3-4000 ft., and Huilla, 5-5500 ft., Angola, 

 Br WelwiUchl 



Mozamb. Distr. " The Boss," 4000 ft., Mgunda-Mkhali, Spehe and Grant! 



Also at the Cape. 



M. Baillon's plant differs in its tetramerous pistil, and in the presence of a pair of 

 lateral bracteoles to each flower, but it is doubtless a congener. 



Order LIIL HALORAGEiE. (By Prof. Oliver.) 



Flowers small or minute, hermaphrodite or unisexual, di- mono- or 

 achlamydeous. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, limh toothed or 0; or 

 calyx wanting. Petals 2-4 or wanting; Stamens 1-2-4-8 ; anthers 

 basifixed, 2-celled, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary 1- or 4-celled (in 

 African genera). Ovules solitary (or 4 in Serpicula), pendulous • styles 



