BERBERIDACEA. 65 



Each bundle has a layer of cortical fibres, a cambial zone, and woody 

 fibres, and vessels, among which are several tracheae. In Podophyllum 

 is another anatomical character which completes its resemblance with 

 certain Liliacea, Asparayaceee, and Smilacece ; inside the epidermis and 

 the first zone of cortical parenchyma is a sheath of tough thick- 

 walled elements. This zone is wanting in Leontice, which are hence 

 even the more close to Monocotyledons generally. Here the fibro- 

 vascular bundles are scattered through the axis, as in Podophyllum, 1 

 and each consists of a cortical and a woody portion. In the centre 

 where they are absent the cellular tissue may be rarified and even 

 leave a fistular cavity. 



Affinities. — All botanists are agreed that Berberidacea come as 

 close as possible to Memspermacea, and that they differ on the 

 whole from these in the hermaphrodism of their flowers, the small 

 size of their embryo, and the absence of an intruded prominence of 

 the endocarp. These differentiating characters are by no means 

 constant. In Lardizabalaceae the flowers are not hermaphrodite, and 

 in this respect the series is nearer to the Menispermacea, wherein 

 it was formerly classed. True, it is compound-leaved, like many 

 Berberideae ; but this character again we know is possessed by the 

 Menispermaceous genus Burasaia. To distinguish Lardizabalete one 

 might turn to the placentation ; yet in this Decaisnea is exceptional, 

 for its placenta is on the ventral angle as in Berberidea or Podo- 

 phyllea. The character of the embryo is a better one, no doubt ; but 

 the intruded process of the stone is not constant in Menispermads. A 

 better differential character, if one is to be sought in the pericarp, is 

 that this is drupaceous in Menispermacea;, while it is either dry or 

 fleshy right through in Berberidacea'. It is very difficult to make any 

 perfectly sharp distinction of Berberidacea; from the other surrounding 

 apocarpous orders. We need only recall how Podophyllum has been 

 placed among Ranunculacece, while Glaucidium, placed in this last 

 order, has, when its gynseceum is unicarpellary, quite the flow r er of the 

 PodojjhyllecB. The ternary type of the flower in this series cannot 



1 In the parenchyma of the stem of Podo- cell containing a large subspherical crystal, 

 phylhim must be mentioned the presence of pretty regularly muricated. 

 numerous vertical rows of cylindroidal cells, each 



VOL. III. • ^ 



