VOL. LX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 85 



fresh specimens, it soon became evident, why you judged it to be of the class of 

 polyadelphia, and placed it among the hypericums with the trivial name of lasi- 

 anthus. For the stamina in the dried specimen appeared to be divided into 5 

 distinct phalanges, or bundles, with their filaments united together; but when 

 you observe the figure and description of the new-blown flower, you will find 

 that the filaments of the stamina being united at the bottom, in a circle round 

 the top of a funnel-shaped tube, will bring it to the class of monadelphia, and 

 probably next to the stewartia. The only doubt I have in the description is, 

 whether the style should be called 1 or 5, the latter of which numbers you have 

 adopted, and perhaps more properly, but in that I shall submit to your decision. 



If, after you have seen it, you think, with many of your friends, both here 

 and in America, that it is a new genus, I desire it may have a place among your 

 genera, by the name Gordonia, as a compliment to our friend, Mr. James Gor- 

 don, near Mile-end, to whom the science of botany is highly indebted, and 

 whose merit is universally known for his great knowledge in the cultivation of 

 exotic plants. 



Mr. Miller, after telling us in his Gardener's Dictionary of the difficulty, or 

 rather impossibility, to raise it, has placed it under the genus of hibiscus ; but as 

 both the characters of that genus, in which he has followed you, as well as the 

 face and habit of this plant, differ so much from an hibiscus, I am convinced 

 you will agree with me, that it does not belong to it. 



Explanation of the Gordonia Lasianthus, pi. 2. 

 A is the flower, unopened, with its calyx and bracteal leaves ; from the curious garden of Benja- 

 min Bewick, Esq. at Clapbani. b the petals dropt off; these are united at their base; see b. i. c 

 the petals, or corolla expanded, to show the fleshy funnel-shaped tube, which unites the filaments 

 together at their base, d the pistillum, whose gerraen, or seed-bud, has been surrounded by the 

 base of the corolla at b i. e the calyx, or flower-cup, consisting of 5 little stiff leaves, ffff the 

 4 bracteal leaves, 'g the short style, and 5 stigmata, g i the stigmata magnified, h the conical ger- 

 men, or seed bud, surrounded by the calyx, h i the seed vessel before it is ripe, with the calyx re- 

 flexed and withered, i the pericarpium, or seed-vessel, with its valves open, kk two winged 

 seeds, l three of the petals cut off, to show how they are united to the fleshy funnel-shaped tube, 

 that supports the stamina, mm m the stamina with their filaments and summits a little magnified. 

 N the bracteal leaves surrounding the flower-bud unopened. 



XLV. The Copy of a Letter from John Ellis, Esq., F.R. S., to Mr. Wm. Alton, 

 Botanic Gardener at Kew, on a New Species of Illicium Linntei, or Starry 

 Aniseed Tree, lately discovered in West Florida, p. 524. 

 After a few preliminary observations Mr. Ellis proceeds thus : 

 I shall now give you a history of this curious tree, both as a native of Japan, 

 China, and other parts of the east, as well as both the Floridas in North Ame- 

 rica. We meet with an account of the eastern one, with a figure of it, taken 

 from Clusius, in Parkinson's Theatre of Plants, p. ISSQ; where he observes. 



