256 Mr. J. Miers on the Bignoniacese. 



all alike possess at an early stage a unilocular ovary with pa- 

 rietal placentations, the fruit becoming bilocular by the subse- 

 quent enlargement and confluence of the placentse : this view 

 is not confirmed by the analyses I have been able to make, and, 

 as regards the Tanaeciea, is not supported by the evidence on 

 record, which I here reproduce. 



First, as respects Colea, the several details of C. Mauritanica 

 (Bot. Mag. tab. 2817), of C. Telfairii {ib. tab. 2976)*, and of 

 C. floribunda (Bot. Reg. v. 27, tab. 19), all prove most distinctly 

 the presence of a broad membranaceous wing around the seeds, 

 as in Bignonia ; and the capsules, though covered by a some- 

 what fleshy epicarp, indicate, by well-marked grooves, the sutural 

 lines of their dehiscence into two valves. Prof. Lindley has 

 remarked that no instance is known of the existence of winged 

 seeds in indehiscent pericarps ; for as the function of the wing 

 of the seed is to carry it from a height to a long distance by the 

 force of the wind, this object could not be efi"ected were the fruit 

 indehiscent. Colea, with its winged seeds in a 2-valved capsule, 

 and its ecirrhose pinnated leaves, may probably find its place 

 near Tecoma, among the Catalpece ; but if, as Sir Wm. Hooker 

 states, the valves of its capsule be parallel to the dissepiment, it 

 must belong to the Bignoniea. In regard to the structure of 

 the ovary in Colea, Prof. A. DeCandollc found it to be distinctly 

 bilocular. AYe have not as yet sufficient knowledge of the struc- 

 ture oi Phyllarthron and Periblema to enable us to judge of their 

 true position : in the latter the ovary is bilocular, with only two 

 ascending ovules in each cell, attached to the dissepiment, and 

 the calyx is enclosed in a tubular ventricose 4-fid involucre, 

 which characters, as Prof. DeCandolle remarks, are quite foreign 

 to the order. Of Phyllarthron very little is known. Even in re- 

 gard to Tanaecium, our information concerning the structure of 

 the ovary, fruit, and seed, as far as has been heretofore known, 

 has not been sufficiently positive. The genus was established 

 by Swartz upon two species so dissimilar in floral organization, 

 in the size and form of the fruit, in their habit, and in the shape 

 of their leaves, that he classed them together with great doubt. 

 DeCandolle and other succeeding botanists have not attempted 

 to disassociate them ; but when another species, closely allied to 

 T. parasiticum, was first described by Miquel, he made it the 

 type of a new genus, calling it Schlegelia lilacina. Prof. De- 

 Candolle, however, expresses a doubt whether it be sufficiently 

 difi'erent from Tanaecium to claim a generic distinction : this 

 remark is true as respects T. parasiticum, which is certainly con- 

 generic with it. Now, if we compare the drawings of Swartz of 



* If the presence of a wing on the seed of C. Telfairii be questioned, 

 there can be no doubt of its existence in C. floribunda, 



