Air. J. Miers on the Affinities of the Olacaceae. 175 



case, and producing a pseudo-inferior fruit, but which, in truth, 

 never ceases to be superior. This we perceive in Myoschilos, a 

 genus placed hitherto in Santalacece, where the hypogynous disk 

 is adnata with the ovarium, and quite free from its triphyllous 

 calyx, the stamens and petals being inserted on the margin of a 

 free portion of the disk ; thus it agrees with Schojjfa in all es- 

 sential points of structure, except that its cah^ consists of three 

 distinct sepals, instead of being an urceolate 5-toothed tube. In 

 Quinchamalium we meet with a still nearer approach to the last- 

 mentioned genus, for its calyx is also quite free, and in the form 

 of an urceolate tube with a 5-toothed border ; we have likewise 

 a similar fleshy hypogj-nous disk, wholly adnate with the ova- 

 rium, and bearing on its margin a gamopetalous corolla ; here 

 also we perceive a similar development of the very prominent 

 epig\Tious gland, that covers the somewhat depressed conical 

 apex of the ovarium, but in this instance it rises in the form of 

 a 5-grooved cylindrical tube, with a border of five rounded pa- 

 tent lobes, encircling the base of the style, and quite free from 

 it. In Arjoona, as in Myoschilos, the calyx consists of three 

 imbricate leaflets, but the outer one is considerably larger, and 

 being 3-nerved, it consists probably of three confluent leaflets, 

 so that the normal number of its sepals will hence be five, corre- 

 sponding with that of the lobes of the border and stamens : the 

 hypogynous disk is here less conspicuous, but it still exists, 

 wholly adnate and continuous with the tube of the corolla : the 

 epigynous gland is highly developed, being entirely free from 

 the base of the corolla, by which it is concealed ; the sty le origi- 

 nating on its umbilical and rounded apex. These three genera 

 have hitherto been placed in Santalacece, but it is evident that 

 to whatever order they belong they must be classed side by side 

 with Schopfia, a decidedly Olocaceous genus. In all the genera 

 of the SantalacecB, we meet with the presence of a large cupuli- 

 form disk, supporting the stamens extenially on its lobed margin, 

 and forming a most prominent and constant feature, but with this 

 diflcrence, that while in Olacacea this disk is frequently adnate 

 with the ovarium and free from the calyx, in Santalacea it never 

 invests the ovarium, but is adnate with the tube of the perigo- 

 nium or calyx, forming generally a deep cup about the superior 

 moiety of the ovarium, which in most of its genera is only half 

 inferior : the cupshaped disk, in these cases, is therefore conti- 

 nuous with the fleshy epigj-nous gland. I am aware that it 

 might be, as it has already been contended, that in Schopfia its 

 disk may be looked upon as an adnate calj'x, its corolla as a pe- 

 rigonium, and its caljTi as a tubular involucre ; but such an ar- 

 gument can no longer be tenable when confronted by the struc- 

 ture seen in Liriosnia and Cathedra, where we find a true solu- 



