U-2 NATURAL mSTOBY OF PLANTS. 



or more frequently in pseudo-corymbs. Seven or eight species are 

 known, from Cliina' and Japan/ India, and the neighbouring 

 countries. We may define them as Dillenias with small flowers and 

 versatile, not adnate, anthers. 



All the DUkniacece we have enumerated, like the Banuncidacece, 

 possess but few absolutely constant characters in common, and 

 in this order even the number of stamens is not always large and 

 strictly indefinite. But they possess a certain number of other 

 characters, to which their very frequent occurrence imparts a 

 value ; the alternation of the leaves,' the polypetaly of the corolla,'' 

 the independence of the elements of the gynaeceum,* the hy- 

 pogynous insertion of the stamens and perianth,^ the persistence 

 of the calyx around the fruit,^ and the presence of an aril at 

 the base of the seeds. ^ We should also add that the flower 

 is nearly always quite regular, and that the exceptional irregu- 

 larities observed are usually not constant even throughout the 

 genus, and are limited to a single verticil,^ the regularity of the 

 general plan of the flower not being otherwise affected. 



The most striking characters among those which are variable, 

 and are chiefly used to estabhsh the great subdivisions of the Order, 

 are as follows : the independence, or greater or less union of the 

 elements of the gynasceum ; the situation, and definite or indefinite 

 number of those of the androcenm. The direction of the anthers 

 and consistency of the pericarp are characters so variable that 

 they can only serve to found the ultimate divisions of genera, or 

 even species. 



We learn from R. Brown,'" that the first idea of making a 



' Bi-NTHAM, Fl. ITonfjTcong., 26.— Pi., in » Thus the Belimas have a single excentric 



Uook. Journ., vi. 303.— Walp., Ann., i. 15. carpel ; but the rest of the flower is regular. 



=* SiEBOLD & Zucc, in Ahhandl.der Akad.d. Certain species of Tetracera, Davilla, &c., have 



Wiisensch. Munch., iii. 727, t. ii., f. 2. an irregular corolla, owing to the suppression of 



' In the Jlemhtemmas of Madagascar, the some of the petals, but the other whorls remain 



leaves are often ojiposite. regular. Pleurandra and Schumacheria, possess 



* One irorwm alone is, as it appears, apetalous an irregular androceum, the flower being other- 

 (mc p. 109, note 1). yi'xse i\vAt oi Hihhertia or Tetracera. Never is 



* IHUenia, Wormia, and Actinidia, would be the irregularity sufficiently decided or extended 

 the only exceptions. over a sufficient number of parts to give it a 



« Perig)-ny is slightly indicated in Hibbertia generic value. In the calyx of Davilla the irre- 



grosmlariafolia (sec p. 94, fig. 134). gularity does not even appear before a certain 



J Some Actinidias seem to be the only ex- period, while the calyx still remains symmetrical 



ceptions. with regard to a single plane. 



" Actinidia and several JDilUnias have seeds '" Gen. Remarks on the Botan. of Terra 



without any true aril. Austr., 9. 



