II. A Monograph of Ebenacece. By "W". P. HIEEN, M.A., St John's College. 



[Read March 11, 1872.] 



THE family EBENACELE was first established by Ventenat in 1799 in his "Tableau du 

 Regne Ve'ge'tal," was revised by Jussieu in the "Annales du Museum," Vol. v. p. 417, in 

 1804, and was finally assigned in 1810 by Brown in his "Prodromus Floras Novse Hollandiaa 

 et Van-Diemen" and briefly reduced to its present shape. 



In 1837 George Don in his "General System of Gardening and Botany," Vol. IV., gave 

 an account of the whole family as understood by him ; he enumerated 83 species which 

 he distributed amongst 8 genera. He however included the genus Diclidanthera with 

 2 species which is now placed in the family STYRACE^E: he placed in ILICINI^E instead of 

 EBENACE^E Leucoxylum buxifolium, Blum. : and he described the new genus Diplonema which 

 however has not been maintained by subsequent authors as distinct from Euclea. 



In 1844 Alphonse De Candolle monographed the family, amongst the earliest of his 

 works, in the " Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis," Vol. vin., and produced 

 160 species and 8 genera, with the omission however of Leucoxylum buxifolium, Blum. 

 Three of these 8 genera were first defined in this monograph. 



No subsequent treatise of an original character on the whole number of species of the 

 family has appeared. 



In the present monograph 5 genera only are recognized, one of which (Tetradis) is 

 new, and amongst these are distributed about 250 species ; an account is also given of 

 the fossils that have been published as members of the family, but these are not included 

 in the above-mentioned estimate. 



For the purpose of preparing the present paper I have consulted all the materials 

 within my reach; I may mention the following important collections which I have 

 examined. 



(i) The royal herbarium at Kew, well known to be amongst the largest in existence, 

 where I have had the advantage of Professor Oliver's incidental assistance. 



(ii) The herbarium of the British Museum, containing many valuable type-specimens 

 and a large miscellaneous collection. 



(iii) The herbarium belonging to the University of Cambridge, including the late 

 Dr Lindleys herbarium and Lehmanris herbarium, the latter named for the University by 

 Mr Bentham. 



(iv) The herbarium of the University of Oxford. 



(v) The Wallickian herbarium of East Indian plants, now the property of the Linnean 

 Society of London. 



42 



