120 KATUIIAL mSTORY OF PLANTS. 



cliissitlcations' been placet! among Mag noli ace ce or BiUeiiiacede. The 

 dilliculty is liere the same as with Eri/fhrospermum, sometimes 

 referred to the Bi.vacece, sometimes to BerheridacccB, according as 

 more stress has been laid on the position and form of the placenta, 

 or on the other whorls of the flower and their symmetry. In this 

 respect, again, the DiUeniacca touch the Canellacece, which we include 

 in Maynoliacece. Dillcnia, Wormia, and other analogous genera come 

 very near Magnolia by their leaves with dilated petioles, membranous 

 and stipuliform on the edges," while by the arrangement of their 

 gynajceum, they recall that of IlUcium and Brimys. The number of 

 parts of the flower excepted, DiUenia and Wormia are, we may say, 

 far more like Magnolia than like most Billeniacea of the CandoUea 

 group. The way the indefinite stamens are inserted on the 

 receptacle of the flower, the very position of the flower at the end of 

 tlie branch, and even the absence of a sacciform membranous ari? to 

 the seeds of true Dilletiias, are features which would have rendered 

 it impossible to j)lace these in a different order from that of Lirio- 

 dcndron or Talauma, if the structure of the gynaeceum, apparently 

 so difl'erent, had not been taken into account. But we have shown^ 

 that the carpels of Wormia and the analogous genera are really free 

 like those of Magnolia,^ not united into an ovary whose cells are 

 separated from one another by simple dissepiments ; while the st3des 

 are distinct from one another towards the base, and are joined only 

 from a certain point, to diverge afresh in the stigmatiferous portion. 

 Thus Wormia and Barilla serve as a passage towards Acfinidia, which 

 we cannot remove from them, and which also resembles Sauraja so 

 much as to have been placed with it and Stachjurus in a separate 

 tribe of the order Ternstrmmiacece.^ It has been shown, too, how 

 through this last order the Billeniacece are indirectly allied to EricinecB, 

 EhenacccB and PiltosjjoracecB. We might also point out some more 

 distant relations between Schumachcria and certain Bipterocarpece^ 



'Especially in those of JussiEU (^Oen., 281), " 8ur V Organisation Morale d'un Wormia 



n'^run^'t'-'^ ''"''" '^^^'''^^'""^°^^^^^"'' ^^^ Seychelles, Adansonia, vii. 343. In this 



' 2 ^ .j' . . ^ memoir it is proved that there is at every age a 



^ beeAdansoma vi. 2/1. considerable cavity in the intervals between the 



A character of so much importance in the ovaries, and that the styles unite above this space. 



eyes of several authors, that it is, fur instance, ^ See p. 109, note 2. 



one of thu ruas<jns which has determined the in- « U H Gen 184 



troduction of Cros.osoma into the order Billeui. 7 Especially in the'venation of the leaves and 



acecB rather than lia.unaUacea. the unilateral arrangement of the tlowers. 



