Myricacese, Platanese, Altingiaccse, anrf Chloranthacea'. 101 



increased to three, and also more rarely reduced to one, wliich 

 requires some explanation before the ovary should be understood 

 as consisting of a single carpel. 



At the time of flowering, the ovary presents no appearances 

 which would lead to a satisfactory knowledge of its structure, 

 and in the fruit the characters become too much obscured to be 

 relied on; but the examination of some very young fruits pro- 

 duced by Myricu quercijolia in the Botanic Gardens at Kew has 

 supplied this deficiency, — transverse sections of them indicating 

 the presence of two carpels united by their margins, the stigmas 

 also being two (PI. VI. figs. 1, ,2, 3 & 4), which are occasionally 

 increased to three, the stigmas then being three (figs. 5, 6 & 7). 

 The fact that in the ovary of the latter the dorsal suture is 

 equally marked in all three carpels, makes it impracticable to 

 account for such appearances by any other explanation ; and as 

 {■AX as my observations have gone, it has proved to be an invari- 

 able rule, that when the ovule is single and erect from the base, 

 without any inclination to either side, as in Myrlca (the stigmas 

 being two or more), the ovary consists of carpels united by their 

 margins, which are the same in number as the stigmas, any 

 accidental inequality of them being the consequence of inequality 

 of the carpels. 



In the structure of the ovary, Myricacete* approacli most 

 nearly to Juglandeee, the inner circle of the tissues composing 

 the ovary of M. qucrcifulia corresponding with the endocarp 

 of the fruit of Jiiglans regia and nigra ; the tendency also to 

 dehiscence, shown by angles in the cavity and by a line extend- 

 ing to the dorsum of each carpel (PI. VI. figs. 2, 3 & 4), being, 

 as in J. regia, through the dorsal sutures. 



With the Cupuhferaj they agree in the partial separation of 

 the lobes of the anther, especially with Carpinus, which, as iu 

 Myrica, is owing to the division of the connective ; and they 

 may also be compared to Abietinse in the variable number of 

 the stamens, and in their filaments, when numerous, becoming 

 monadelphous at the base. And this approach between the sta- 

 mens appears so well marked in Myrica and Pinus, that, next 

 to the affinities between Casuarina and Ephedra, it may perhaps 

 be regarded as the most obvious connecting link between Gym- 

 nosperms and the Amental families ; they are in both cases, when 

 numerous, attached to a pedicel, which, in Finas, has been de- 

 scribed as composed of monadelphous filaments, but should 

 perhaps rather be regarded as an elongated torus ; in both cases, 

 also, their number is irregular, — so much so in Myrica, that in 

 one species I have setn them vary from eight to thirty in the 



* la Comptonia the ovaiy has the same structure as iu Myrica. 



