Mr. J. Miers on the Tricuspidarieae. 39 



VI. — On the Tricuspidarieae, a Suhtrihe of the Elaeocarpeae. 

 By John Miers, F.R.S., F.L.S., &c. 



The ElceocarpeWj as a natural order distinct from TiliacecBj 

 was proposed in 1808 by Jussieu, who united with it the 

 TriGuspidaria and Vallea of the ^ Flora Peruviana.' Kunth, 

 in 1821, followed this example; but, in a note, he suggested 

 that it might well form a distinct tribe of the Tiliacece, De 

 Candolle, in 1821, adopted the view of Jussieu, adding to the 

 list Friesia and others now subgenera of Elceocarpus. Lindley, 

 in 1836, in his ^ Nat. Syst.,' followed a similar course ; but in 

 1845, in his ^ Veget. Kingd.,' he adopted the hint suggested 

 by Kunth, uniting the family with Tiliacece as a distinct tribe. 

 The authors of the new ' Genera Plantarum,' in 1862, followed 

 this arrangement under some modifications, excluding Vallea 

 upon very insufficient data, and amalgamating Friesia with 

 Aristotelia and Crinodendron with Tricuspidaria upon slender 

 grounds. After a carefal examination of these several genera, 

 I am led to follow the views of Endlicher in maintaining the 

 Tricuspidarice as a subtribe distinct from Elceocarpecej which 

 are distinguished from one another by very salient and con- 

 stant characters. In the former the petals, though three-lobed 

 at the apex or nearly entire, are never fringed as in the Elceo- 

 carpeoR ; in the latter the fruit is a drupe, with a single thick 

 osseous mesocarp, assuming the shape of an indehiscent tuber- 

 culated nut, which, by abortion, is seldom more than 1- or 2- 

 celled, each cell producing a single seed (not suspended from 

 the summit, as generally stated, but) appended by the middle 

 of its ventral face. On the other hand, the Tricuspidarice^ 

 besides the difference in the form of the petals, have a fruit 

 always 3-5-celled, with two or more superposed seeds in 

 each cell, and either capsular and dehiscent or else baccate 

 with a membranous endocarp. But a still more forcible dis- 

 tinction exists in the nature of the integuments of the seeds. 

 In the Elceocarpece the outer integument is chartaceous, thin, 

 and brittle, the second tunic being submembranaceous ; but 

 there is no osseous coat. In the Tricuspidariece the seeds in- 

 variably have three tunics : the outer one is thick and fleshy, 

 in which the chord of the raphe is imbedded ; the second coat 

 is thick, osseous, obpyriform, truncated at its base, where, 

 beneath the chalaza, there is always a distinct chamber, into 

 which the vessels of the raphe find their way ; the third tunic 

 is opaque, somewhat membranaceous, with a large orbicular 

 chalaza at its base, corresponding with the chalazal base of the 

 bony tunic. No structure of this kind is seen in the Elceo- 

 carpece ; but it is constant in all the Tricuspidariece, An ana- 



