342 Mr. J. Miers on the Canellacese. 



mistakes in the I'eferences to Plate X. in my paper in the April 

 No. of the ' Annals.' 



At page 250, line 7 from top, /or figs. 10, 11, read figs, 8, 9. 



line \G,for 10 & 11 read^ & 9. 



line 24, /or 7-9 read 7, 10, & 11. 

 At page 251, line 4 from top, /or 8 & 9 read 10 & 11. 



I am, Gentlemen, yours &c., 



T. Rupert Jones. 

 Geol. Soc, Somerset House, 

 April 8, 1858. 



XXXL— Ow the Canellacea. By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S.&c. 



Having been engaged for a long time in the study of the Clu- 

 siacetE, 1 have been led to examine the several genera that have 

 been referred at different periods to that family, and in this 

 manner Canella and Cinnamodendron came under my especial 

 notice. The former genus was arranged by DeCandolle and 

 Choisy in Guttifera, but it was partially separated from the 

 order by Martius and Endlicher, and made the type of a sub- 

 order of that family under the name of the Canellacete, asso- 

 ciating with it Cinnamodendron and Platonia. It will, however, 

 be seen that Canella has no relation with Platonia, but that its 

 real affinity tends towards the Winteracea. I will therefore 

 proceed to state my reasons for this conclusion, will expose the 

 characters of both groups, and describe their genera severally. 



This small family consists only of the two genera above men- 

 tioned, Canella and Cinnamodendron. They form evergreen 

 trees, with a bark possessing the taste and smell of cinnamon ; 

 they have a copious foliage of alternate, somewhat fleshy, exsti- 

 pulate leaves, which are furnished with dotted glands, and have a 

 taste similar to that of the bark : the flowers are small, in short 

 axillary or terminal corymbs, having a persistent calyx of 3 sepals^ 

 5 petals with dotted glands, or sometimes 10 petals in 2 series, 

 extrorse monadelphous stamens, a unilocular ovarium with two 

 or more parietal placentations ; a small, baccate, 1-celled fruit, 

 containing a few black, shining, reniform seeds having a parietal 

 attachment. Many of these characters are possessed by the 

 Winteracecc, from which the Canellacea difi"er in the union of 

 their stamens into a monadelphous tube ; in the shape and dis- 

 position of the anther-cells ; and in lieu of several distinct car- 

 pels, they have only one solitary unilocular ovary, with 2 to 5 

 parietal placentations. In the former family, whether there be 

 sevei'al ovaria, or whether by abortion they be reduced to one, 

 these, although 1-celled, invariably exhibit a single placentation 

 along the ventral face. 



