384 ACCOUNT OF A NEW GENUS OE PLANTS, 



111 Oils ])lants the genus belongs, it may, I tliink, without 

 hesitation be referred to Bkotyledones ; yet if the plant is 

 parasitic, and consequently no argument on this subject to 

 be derived from the structure of the root, which is exactly 

 that of the Viue,-^ its exclusion from MonocotyJedones would 

 rest on no other grounds, that I am able to stnte, than the 

 quinary division of the perianthium, which in other respects 

 also bears a considerable resemblance to that of certain 

 dicotyledonous orders, the number of stamina, and the 

 ramification of vessels in the bracteae. 



Assuming, however, that Bafflesia hdowg^io Bicoti/Iedoues, 

 218] and considering the foliaceous scales which cover the un- 

 expanded flower, both from their indefinite niunber and im- 

 bricate insertion as bracteae, and consequently the floral 

 envelope as simple, its comparison with the families of this 

 primary division would be limited to such as are apetalous ; 

 either absolutely as Asarince ; those of a nature interme- 

 diate between the apetalous and polypetalous, in which the 

 segments of the perianthium are generally, though not 

 always, disposed in a double series, as Fassiflorece, Citcur- 

 hiiaccce, and Homalina -, or those which have a simple 

 coloured floral envelope, but are decidedly related to poly- 

 petalous families, as SiercuIiacecB. 



With Asarince., the only truly apetalous order to which it 

 seems necessary to compare it, Bafflesia has several points 

 of resemblance, especially in the structure of the central 

 column. In AristoIocJda the antherse, though only six in 

 number, are in like manner sessile, and inserted near the 

 apex of a column formed by the union of stamina and pis- 

 tillum. The mere difi'erence in the number of stamina 

 seems to be of no importance in the present question, there 

 being twelve in Asarum ; and in Tliottea, a genus certainly 

 belonging to this family, though referred by Rottboll to 

 ConiovtcB^" the stamina are not only still more numerous, 

 but are disposed in a double circular series one above the 

 other ; an arrangement which may perhaps be considered 



^ Compare the magiiiCed section of the Eoot, tab. 20 (2-3),/. S, with that of 

 the A^ine in Grew's xinat. tab. 1 7. 



- Tholtea graudiflora. liottbUl in Nov. Act. Soc. Txcg. Hafn. ii, p. 529, 

 tab. 2. 



