BILLENTACEJE. 115 



Few of the DiUeniacecB are lierbaceous ; none but a few of the 

 Ilibbcrtias, especially //. (j/rossulariafolin, and also the Aci-otrcmas, 

 which in habit and by their simple leaves, entire, pinnatisect, or 

 lyrate, resemble certain Ranuncidacece or Fragariece. Nearly always 

 the branches are woody, at least towards the base ; they are often 

 also trailing and twining. Crijger' has studied the anatomy 

 of several of these lianas, especially of Doliocarpiis Eolandri and 

 Curatella. But the only character made out in these plants has been 

 an abnormal arrangement of the vascular bundles, which seems 

 simply to depend on their sarmentose nature, and is found in the 

 lianas of many other orders ; namely, the very clear marking out 

 of the different concentric zones of wood, and the frequent occur- 

 rence of supplementary woody bundles, quite isolated in distinct 

 parts of the cellular matrix which constitutes the medullary rays 

 and cortical parenchyma. No one, hardly, had investigated the 

 anatomical characters common to all those Dilleniacea which have 

 not a climbing stem ; and we think it right to reproduce here the 

 facts we have recently published^ on the subject. 



"All the BiUcniaceoi are rich in bundles of raphides. In the 

 cultivated Candolleas and Hibbertias we find them abundantly in 

 the cortical cells, the pith, and the parenchyma of the leaves. In 

 the pith of JDillenia speciosa, Thunbg., are found cells containing 

 enormous packets of these crystalline needles. All the other cells, 

 and often the woody fibres also, are at certain seasons gorged with 

 starch granules, which here, as in Candollea, Hibbertia, and so 

 many other woody plants, are secreted and re-absorbed to subserve 

 nutrition — a fact too general, and known too long to be worth dwelling 

 long upon here. In all the Australian species we have examined 



and PlettrandrefP. We know well, too, that each. It is nevertheless true that there is really 



Candullea and Hihleriia are closely related, in practice no hesitation in distinguishing a Hih- 



for there are 7/ii6eWw.9 with oligandrous bundles fteWiafroma Candollea. If there were doubtful 



when adult, like II. lepidota K. Hr., that cases, it would prove that our classifications 



form a transition between them; and C. J. de are perfectible, and are always wrong in putting 



CoRDEMor has shown {Bull. Soc. Bot.Fr., vi. forth an absolute claim to the title "natural;" 



450) how likely it is that the two types will but so far as we know, none avoids this incon- 



some day be fused into one. It is further very venience. 



well known that organogenic researches have i j^..^ Beitrdge z. Kenntnks von soge- 



shown in both genera the existence of distnict ^^^^^^^ anomalen HolzhM ngea des Dicotylen- 



altern.petalous bundles and that the clear d,s. ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^.^^ ^^.^^ ^gg^ ^^ .^^_ 



tmction nito these bundles is no longer visible in ^ 



the adult Hower of Hibbertia, simply because ^ Compfes Eeiidus de I' Academic des Sciences, 



of the immeuse multiplicatiou of the elements of btiv. 297; Adansonia, vii. 88. 



i2 



