Mr. J. Miers on Villaresia. 107 
XIII—On Villaresia. 
By Joun Mirrs, F.R,S., F.L.S, &e, 
Tuts genus of the Flora Peruviana is but little known, only one 
species having been yet described. Poiret (in 1808) considered 
it to belong to Aurantiacee,—an idea derived, no doubt, from the 
vernacular name of the typical species, “ Naranjillo.” Jussieu 
(in 1821) gave a very correct description of that species, accom- 
panied by analytical figures (Ann, Sc. Nat. xxv. tab. 3), and 
placed the genus rightly in Aquifoliacee. Don (in 1832) de- 
scribed the same plant under the name of Citronella mucronata, 
when he assigned it_a position near Cassine. Hooker and Arnott 
(in 1834), in their enumeration of Chile plants (Hook, Journ. 
Bot. i, 283), arranged the genus next to Myrsine. Jussieu 
states that some botanists had considered it as belonging to 
Menispermacee; and Dr. Lindley (in 1836) appears to have 
then adopted similar conclusions in referring it to Schizandracee 
(Introd. Bot, 553), but afterwards (in 1846) he retracted this 
opinion (Veg. Kingd. 598), and, following the view of Jussieu, 
placed it in Agquifoliacee. Endlicher pursued the same arrange- 
ment in his ‘ Gen. Plant.’ No. 5709. 
On a former occasion, I adduced abundant evidence to show 
that the Icacinacee do not belong to Olacacee, and that the 
proper place of that family in the system is near the Aquifoliacea, 
the structure in both cases being nearly similar, differing prin- 
eipally in the estivation of the corolla, which is valvate in the 
former and imbricate in the latter. In both families the ovarium 
is normally plurilocular ; and when, as in Villaresia, it is one- 
celled, this is always due to the abortion of the other cells— 
a condition that also prevails throughout the Jeacinacee; it 
therefore very rarely happens that more than one cell and a 
single seed are perfected in this genus. I have recorded the 
fact * ‘that in Pennantia, where the fruit is generally unilocular 
and monospermous, it sometimes occurs that two cells, each 
l-seeded, are developed. I have witnessed the same excep- 
tional occurrence in Villaresia, in a species growing at Kew, 
where, on the same plant, some of the ovaries were 1-locular, 
while others were distinctly bilocular, each with two ovules col- 
laterally suspended from the dissepiment, Hence the rule is 
general throughout both families, that, although the normal 
condition of the ovary is plurilocular, there exists a general ten- 
deney to the abortion of most of its cells, Thus in Jlea we have 
constantly four, or more rarely five, cells, in Prinos six to eight, 
in Cassine three, in Nemopanthes three or four, while in Byronia 
. * Huj. op. ser. ii, p. 488; Contrib. Bot. i..77, pl. 12. figs, 25-28, 
