Mr. J. Miers on some genera of the Icacinaceae. 115 



nus carefully figured and described by Prof. Blume {loc. ante 

 citat.), and placed by him and Mr. Brown among the Phyto- 

 crenea: this genus, with a very different habit, offers only a 

 single floral envelope, with stamens alternate with its segments, 

 and a 1 -celled ovarium with two suspended ovules, characters 

 similar to those of Pyrenacantha, from which it differs in its ex- 

 albuminous seeds : these two genera are therefore clearly refer- 

 able to the Apetalce of Endlicher, which are nearly equivalent 

 to the Monochlamydea of DeCandolle. If Sarcostigma then be 

 related to the Phytocrenece, — an affinity which, if we accept, we 

 must admit has not yet been demonstrated, — it is clear that it 

 cannot bear any relation to the two genera before mentioned, 

 which appear to have been associated with that group upon very 

 insufficient grounds ; and if, as above indicated, the Phytoa'enea 

 be allowed to rank among the Dialypetala, it appears to me their 

 position would not be far from the Tiliacece or Dipterocarpea, to 

 which families they offer many analogous characters : from 

 Prof. Blume's analysis, they would much resemble the latter in 

 the structure of the seed ; under Prof. Lindley's view, they would 

 more nearly approach the former. 



The observations that now follow were written several months 

 ago, and as they are confined wholly to the description of facts, 

 there is no occasion to retract anything there advanced in con- 

 sequence of what is said above. 



The genus Sarcostigma, to which I have alluded ijiuj. op. ix. 

 p. 223) as belonging to the Sarcostigmea, one of the tribes of the 

 Icacinacece, was founded in 1832 by Drs. Wight and Arnott, on 

 an Indian plant collected by Dr. Klein, and described by them in 

 the 14th volume of the ' Edinburgh New Phil. Journal.' Like 

 Desmostachys, it is somewhat scandent in its habits, but it has 

 large oblong leaves upon very short petioles, and, as in that ge- 

 nus, it has an extremely long and slender spicated inflorescence, 

 studded at close intervals with fascicles of small flowers, which 

 in drying retain their bright yellow colour, and are very deci- 

 duous, being articulated upon very short and almost obsolete 

 pedicels. The flowers, in the only case I have seen, are all 

 female, and their stamens, which are sterile, are alternate with 

 the petals; the internal structure of the ovarium corresponds 

 with the usual character of the order : in the form of its epigy- 

 nous stigmatoid summit it resembles Stemonurus, and what I 

 have stated concerning the nature of this part in that genus ap- 

 pears confirmed by the circumstances that occur here : in some 

 cases this appears like a flat, glabrous, fleshy disk, with a depres- 

 sion in the centre, as in the following genus Discophora, but it 

 seems afterwards to attain the form of a somewhat conical um- 

 braculiform process, overhanging the ovarium, with a crenated 



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