182 Mr. J. Miers on the Calyceracez. 
accreted at the base upon a large fleshy receptacle in Calycera 
and Nastanthus; and confluent for the greater part of their 
length into a campanulate form in Boopis and Anomocarpus— 
thus remaining free from the receptacle, which is small and 
seated in its centre. In the five last-mentioned genera the re- 
ceptacle is flat or slightly convex; in Acicarpha it is conical, 
globular, or cylindrical; in Boopis and Anomocarpus it is small 
and greatly reduced in size. Each capitulum is furnished with 
numerous crowded flowers; and in most of the genera, each 
floret is furnished at the point of its origin with a narrow elon- 
gated palea, as in Composite ; but in Anomocarpus the receptacle 
is almost epaleaceous, each floret being inserted in an alveolar 
depression. In Gamocarpha the palee are conjoined in numerous 
circles, from their base half-way up their margins, the upper 
portions remaining free, and these again are united together by 
other pales, thus forming a kind of honeycomb structure, with 
deep cells or nests spread all over the receptacle, several florets 
being affixed to the bottom of each nest. There is some analogy 
in this respect with the structure in Gundelia among Composite, 
where there is a large capitulum, provided with a general invo- 
lucre, which capitulum is composed of a great many tubular 
involucels with a spinosely dentate border, each containing 3-7 
florets ; the greater part of these involucels are agglutinated 
together in a honeycomb-like cylindrical head, and fixed upon 
an elongated central receptacle; these involucels may be con- 
sidered as composed of two or more pale united by their mar- 
gins into a dentate tube, as is shown in the last whorls, where 
these tubes are quite free from one another. In Calycera the 
capitulum is seated upon a long scape, the leaves being radical ; 
in Acicarpha, and frequently in Boopis, where the plant has many 
branching leafy stems, a capitulum issues from each alternate 
axil, upon a rather short peduncle. In Anomocarpus, in three 
species, the capitula are nearly sessile in the remote dichotomy 
of the branchlets ; while in another species the axis of the plant 
is so completely depressed that all the leaves become radical, 
with its numerous sessile capitula interspersed between them, so 
that the whole grows into a pulvinate shape with a crowded 
mass of flowers. In Nastanthus all the species assume a some- 
what similar form, from an aggregation of its numerous capitula, 
each supported upon a very thick fleshy peduncle, which bears a 
single leaf near its summit, a little below the level of the invo- 
lucre. 
In regard to the natural affinities of the Calyceracee, nearly 
all systematic botanists are agreed in following the indications 
first suggested by the illustrious founder of the order, who 
showed that its closest alliance is with the Composite; it has 
