172 Mr. J. Miers on the Affinities of the Olacacese. 



SantalacecE, but the membranaceous and pellicular integument 

 will be found adhering to the inner face of the cell^ and when 

 separated, there will be seen on one side a funicular raphe-like 

 thready extending from the base to near the summit, which is 

 merely the attenuated remains of the placentary column, with 

 the abortive ovules, still visible, at the apical point of attachment 

 to the integument. The embryo is small, terete, and seated in 

 the axis of the upper portion of the albumen, the radicle being 

 always superior, and the cotyledons very small and compressed, 

 directed towards the centre of the nucleus. To such characters 

 I have found the following genera correspond, viz. Ximenia, 

 Heisteria, Olax, Schopfia, Strombosia, Cathedra, lodina, Liriosma, 

 Opilia, Arjoona, Quinchamalium, and two new genera, Agonandra 

 and Endusa. The order thus restricted is marked by more 

 distinct and coextensive characters than those proposed by Mr. 

 Bentham, and will be seen to comprise only his tribes Olacece 

 and OpiliecE. The latter tribe however cannot be maintained, 

 as I find that Cansjera does not belong to the family*, and that 



* The genus Cansjera, first placed in the ThymeletB by Jussieu, was re- 

 tained there by all subsequent botanists, till removed to the Olacacem by 

 Mr. Bentham, who concluded it was allied to Opilia, because he considered 

 it to have a small distinct adnate calyx, and an unilocular ovarium, with a 

 single ovule suspended from the summit of a free central placenta. All 

 the specimens I have examined of both known species, from various localities, 

 and in different herbaria, present characters constantly at variance with 

 these conclusions and more in accordance with the description given by 

 Lamarck (Diet. iii. 433). Here I can observe no trace of any distinct calyx, 

 but the floral envelope, which is a simple tubular perianthium, is supported 

 at base upon a small and pointed navicular bract : the four stamens are 

 adnate in the ujjper portion of the tube, equal to the number of the lobes 

 of the border, and ojjposite to them ; four tridentated, free, hypogynous 

 scales alternate with the stamens ; the long conical ovarium is seated upon 

 a narrow glandular support, from which the scales originate, and the style 

 is surmounted by a large 4-lobed capitate stigma. The ovarium I find to 

 be constantly 4-locular at base, and one or more (generally two or three) of 

 these minute cells extend irregularly like narrow and inteiTupted channels, 

 to the u])per portion, and the fecundating threads may be traced from all 

 of them, most distinctly, to the style : a single ovule is seen, sometimes 

 higher, sometimes lower, from a prominent line of placentation on one side 

 of each ovuliferous channel which at the point of the development of the 

 ovule becomes widened, and here the placenta is somewhat ciu'ved, by 

 the ascending direction of the ovule. The seed is a drui^e, apiculated by 

 the base of the style, and supported below by the remains of the shrivelled 

 perianthium ; it contains an oval coriaceous putamen, which encloses a 

 single erect seed ; a short receptacle is seen at the base of the cell, which 

 enters into a corresponding hollow in the seed, and from it extend, in a 

 cruciform direction, four prominent keels or ridges, which penetrate as 

 many furrows observable in the albumen : the testa and integument are 

 membranaceous, the albumen solid and fleshy, and an embiyo of half its 

 length is })laced in the axis of the upper moiety : this embryo is slender, 

 cylindrical, and terete, its superior radicle is oval, clavate, six times shorter 



