APPENDIX. No. V. 429 



natives of America only, are also cofttained in the collection ; and tlie loftiest 

 tree seen on the banks of the Congo, is a species of Bombax, ^vhich, as 

 lar as can be determined from tlie very imperfect specimens preserved in 

 the herbarium, does not differ from Bombax pentandnim of Amerita and 

 India. I have formerly remariced* that IMalvacefe, TiliacejE, Heiinanniaceae, 

 Butneriaceae, and Sterculiacese, constitute one natural class ; of which the orders 

 appear to me as nearly related as the different sections of Rosaceae are to 

 each other. In both these, as well as in sevei-al other cases that might be 

 mentioned, there seems to be a necessity for the establishment of natural classed, 

 to which proper names, derived from tiie orders best known, and differing 

 perhaps in termination, might be given. 



It is remarkable that the most general chai'acter connecting the different orders 

 of the class now proposed, and v hich may be named from its principal order 

 Malvaceae, should be tliat of the valvular aestivation of the Calyx : for several, 

 at least, of the genera at present referred to Tiliaceas, in which this character 

 is not found, ought probably, for other reasons likewise, to be excluded from 

 that order : and hence perhaps also the Chlenaceae, though nearly related, are 

 not strictly referable to the class INIalvacea?, from all of whose orders, it must 

 be admitted, they differ considerably in habit. 



LEGUMINOS.E. According to Bai-on Humbolt,f this family, or class, as 

 I am rather disposed to consider it, constitutes one-twelfth of the Phsenogamoiis 

 plants wlhin the tropics. Its proportion, however, is much greater in Pro- 

 fessor Smith's herbarium, in which there are \)G species belonging to it, or 

 nearly one-sixth of the whole collection. And, ample allowance being made 

 for the lateness of the season when the collection was formed, which might be 

 supposed to reduce the number of this family less than many of the others, 

 Leguminosae may be stated as forming one-eighth of the Phaenogamous plants 

 on the banks of the Congo. In India, it probably forms about one-ninth, 

 which is also nearly the proportion it bears to Phaenogamous plants in the 

 equinoctial part of New Holland. 



I have formerly proposed to subdivide Leguminosae into three orders.| 



Of the first of these orders, MIMOSE^-E, there are only eight species from 

 • Flmders't Joy, ^, p. 540. + op. dial. + Flinders' s f 01/ . 2,;/. 551. 



