318 NATURAL niSTOBY OF PLANTS. 



o-onus uJ^gofoxicon of Ruiz & Pavon' to the Monimiaccce, but Lis 

 t)i)iiiion lias not yet been adopted by the authors who have recently 

 traced out the limits of this order.' 



In \^C)\ F. IMuELLER established the genus Palmeria for an 

 Australian ^loniniiad, very close indeed to Monimia. The genus 

 Ilortou'ia was created by Wight, in 1838 ;•' but, originally placed near 

 the Svluzamlrea and Anonacea,^ it was only eventually included in 

 Monimiaccce!' It was also quite recently" that we restored to it the 

 genera Calycanthiis of Linn^us, and CUmonanthus of Lindley (1819); 

 whose kinship to Monimiaccce and Atlierospcrmcce, recognised for a 

 short period," was even lately contested, and finally rejected.^ At 

 the same time we proposed^ that the genus Gomortega of Molina 

 (1782), liitherto referred to Lauraccce, should be considered as the 

 type of a new tribe of the order under consideration. 



We divide the order Monimiaccce thus constituted into live 

 secondary groups or series: I, CaJycanihcce ; 2, Horioniece ; 3, Tam- 

 bourissecB ; 4, Allierospcrmece ; 5, Gomortege<B. By recalling the 

 ])rincipal features of each of these, and pointing out their differences, 

 we shall show what characters of importance are variable in this 

 natural group. 



I. In all Monimiaccce of the last four sections, the embryo is small, 

 and surrounded with copious albumen, and the floral receptacle bears 

 few appendages, or none, below its superior orifice. In the Caly- 

 CANTHE^, on the contrary, these appendages are numerous, and 

 evidently arranged in a spiral. The embryo nearly fills the whole 

 cavity of the seed, and its broad cotyledons are rolled on each other, 

 while the albumen is absent, or only represented by a little central 

 spit of cellular tissue. 



II. The HoRTONiE^ have drupaceous fruits, free alike from each 

 other and from the receptacle above which they spread freely, through 

 the enlargement of its apex, through its tearing irregularly to free 

 them, or through the upper part coming off like a lid in one circular 

 piece, below the insertion of the perianth and androceum. 



' Ann. Sc. Nat., s<t. 4, ix. 279 ; Bull. Soc. 6 Adansonia, ix. (1868), 112. 



Boi. de Fi:, V. 214. 7 gee Juss., loc. ci^.— Lindl., op. cif., n. 404. 



2 See A. DC, Brodr., xvi. s. post., 641. —A. Geat, Gen. III., i. 56. 



3 AlcN., Mar/, ff Zuol. and Boi., ii. 516. « jj jj ^ q^^^^ jg, 



* Endl., Orn., Suppl. ii. 107. » Op. elf., 113, 118, 126. 



s Hook. F. & Thom«., Ft. Ltd., i. (18r)5), 16(i. 



