Mr. J. Miers on the Affinities of the Olacaceae. 1G5 



meutioued order, as in the Olacacece j and the approximation of 

 these genera to the Anonace<jB is again confirmed by the rumi- 

 nated albumen of the seed of Reptonia. The relation of the 

 Ebenacea with the Olacacece was, I believe, first pointed out by 

 Jussieu, but few botanists have attended to the suggestion ; from 

 the indications just mentioned, it will probably be found, that a 

 more fitting position for the Ebemicea in the system exists among 

 the hypogynous Polypetaleae, not far from the Anonacece, rather 

 than in the monopetalous group, where it is placed in the ' Pro- 

 dromus ' of DeCandolle, and in the arrangements of other modem 

 botanists. 



Mr. Bentham in his memoir before quoted gives his opinion, 

 that among dichlamydeous plants, the family of the Humiriacea 

 approaches most to that of the Olacacece ; but in this inference 

 he had probably in view his tribe Icacinece, which I propose to 

 remove altogether from the order : 1 cannot indeed perceive any 

 such approximation between the two families. In the Humi- 

 riacecE, the aestivation of the corolla is imbricated or contorsive, 

 the stamens are many-seried, and numerous in respect to the 

 petals, generally united into a monadelphous tube, or combined 

 in phalanges, and they have a singular expansion of their fleshy 

 connective; the ovarium is sun-ounded at its base by a thin, and 

 somewhat membranaceous dentate ring ; it has four or five com- 

 plete cells, which by the thickening of the axile placenta are 

 often again divided by a transverse partition. The fruit is a 

 berry, having a 5-celled osseous nut, the cells being often 2- 

 locellate, and the seeds are provided with the usual integumental 

 coverings. This is in no way analogous to what is seen in 

 Olacacece; but the HumiriacecB present a more manifest affinity 

 with the SymplocacecE. 



A considerable degree of analogy between the Myrsijiacete and 

 Olacacece is shown in the position of its stamens opposite the 

 petals, which present an aestivation so little imbricated as to be 

 sometimes mistaken for being valvate ; they agree also much in 

 habit and inflorescence. In Icacorea the ovarium is unilocular, 

 with four ovules attached to a central free placenta, of which 

 sometimes only one becomes matured, as in Olacacece; but here 

 the analogy ceases, as the aestivation of the corolla is contorsively 

 imbricate and the seed presents all the characters of the Myrsi- 

 nacece. This family has been arranged by most authors among 

 the Monopetalece, but for the reasons before urged in regard to 

 the Ebenacece and Styracea, it should be transferred to the Pleio- 

 petalecp. In Masa, Samara {Choripetalum, A. DC), and Emhelia, 

 the corolla is decidedly pleiopctalous, and in the other genera of 

 the order the petals are only slightly coherent at base, the 

 ovarium being in all cases superior, except in Masa, where it is 



