MONIMIACEJE. 317 



relationship as do tlie Pomacece to those Bosacets in which the carpels 

 always remain free from the receptacle. 



The order Monimiacece was established in 1S09 by A. L. de 

 JussiEu/ who included in it the genus Tambourissa of Sonnerat, 

 which he called Amhora, and the genera Monimia, Siparuna, Bohka, 

 Mollinedia, Atherosperuia, and Lrmrelia. The two last genera were 

 distinguished as possessing dry pericarps, while the rest have dru- 

 paceous fruits. Tambourissa dates as a well-defined genus from 

 1782 ; but Flacourt had described it imperfectly as early as 1661." 

 A. L. DE JussiEU had in his Genera Flanfarurrv' placed it among 

 Urticea with the genus Hedycanja,'' observed in 1776 by J. & G. 

 FoRSTER. Siparuna included American plants named b}^ Aubi,et 

 in 1774, and studied under the name Citrosma, by Euiz & Pavon in 

 1794. These authors made known at the same epoch the genera Mol- 

 linedia, Favonia {Laurelia), and Boldea {Ruizia), which is the Peiimus 

 of Molina (178.2). In 1806 Labillardi^re discovered Atherosperma 

 in Australia, now-a-days considered a congener of Laurelia. In the 

 same year Du Petit-Thouars had observed Monimia in the Southern 

 Islands of Eastern Africa, and had thoroughly described this genus, 

 which gives its name to the order. 



Despite R. Brown's' attempt to divide the Monimiacece into two 

 perfectly distinct groups, of which the one with its fleshy fruits would 

 retain its relations with the Urticacece, while the other, completely 

 difterentiated by its dry fruits and valvular anthers, would come near 

 Lauracea, most recent authors, especially Endlicher, A. Richard, 

 and L. R. Tulasne have maintained in its integrity the natural 

 group established by A. L. de Jussieu. To this Endlicher, in 

 1836, added the genera Dor>/phora and Kibara, the latter of which 

 we include in Mollinedia. The other types that in our eyes should 

 also form part of this genus are of more recent creation. Matthcea 

 was proposed by Blume, in 1856 ; Wilkiea by Mueller, and Ephip- 

 piandra by Decaisne in 1858. The last author also ascribes the 



' Memoire sur les Monimiees, Ann. du Mus., * Loc. cit., n. l708. 



xiv. IIG, '" Gen. Rem. Qeogr. and Syst. on the Bot. of 



• ninloire de la Grande lie de Madaga.^car, Terra Aust rails (181 1), 21; Misc. IForAs, oil. 



133, n. 69. Bknn., i. 25. 



3 401, n. 1706. 



