70 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Affinities. — B. de Jussieu placed Banuncidi between Capparklea, 

 and Lai/ri. Adanson put them between his group "Annn' and that 

 of the Cistuses, which included Curatella, Sarracenia, and Nit/ella. 

 A. L. DE Jussieu makes them the first order of his Polypetalous 

 Hypogynous Dicotyledons, and puts Papaveracea next. De 

 Candolle, whose example has been followed by very many authors, 

 begins his enumeration of Thalamifloral Polypetalous plants by 

 Jtanunculacea, before Dillcniacca and MagnoVmcece. Endlicher 

 intercalates them between Dilh'niacca and Bcrfjcridacra in his class 

 Pol year piv(B. Lindlev' gives their name to his thirty-second Alliance 

 " Manalea" where they are placed between DiUeniacea and Sar- 

 raceniacecB. Brongniart* gave them exactly the same position : in 

 the Botanical School of the Museum they are actually interposed 

 between BillcniacecB and NijniplKsacecB. J. G. Agardh" divides them 

 into three families {HelleborccB, Nigellacea, and Banunculea), which 

 he puts between PodophyUece and Adoxcce. We cannot, indeed, doubt 

 their close relationship to the Polycarjnca {i.e., Magnoliacea, 

 SchizandrecE, AiionacccB, Mcuispennacea, &c.). Finally, except for the 

 centripetal evolution of the stamens (invisible when the flower is 

 full grown), no absolute character separates them from the Billeniacca, 

 which may be considered as the Banuncidacca of hot climates, 

 usually with woody stems. The herbaceous genus Acrofrona is the 

 only exception, and approaches Banunculus as nearly as possible. We 

 have attempted to show* that Banunculacea and DilleniacccB do not 

 difler absolutely in any of the characters previously used to distinguish 

 them — the persistence of the calyx ; the aspect of the anthers ; the 

 direction of the ovules and of their parts ; the existence of an aril — 

 only that the stem is more frequently herbaceous in Banuncuhicvce 

 than in DdlenincecBy while these rarely want an aril, the existence of 

 which is, on the contrary, exceptional and not well marked in the 

 former. The calyx is said to persist always in DiUcii'uiwcv ; it is 

 oftener caducous in BanunculacecB. As to the direction of the ovules, 

 " there is but one Uanunculad with a suspended ovule and the micro- 

 pyle external when adult, and this situation of the niicropyle would 

 be seen in Dd/c/iiaccic, if the ovule were suspended, since it is 



' Op. cit.. 410. 77, 78, t. v., fig«. 11-13. " RnnunculawM . . . 



2 Enumtratiou des rjenrra de plant, eult. au exhihui, ut relationem cum Ailoxn evideniiorem 



Mtu.. (IH^m), !)fi, Faiii. 1 '.»:«. r,,UI,rrm." 



» Theoria Syalemalu I'lanlarum (1h5H), 70, * Adansonia, iv. 36. 



