OGHNACEJE. 37J 



ascendent, with inferior exterior micropyle. Styles often gynobasic, 

 united above into a single column. Fruit drupaceous or dry, inde- 

 hiscent. Seeds exalbuminous. — (4 genera.) 



II. Eotiiemidejs. — Gynseceum with carpels united among them- 

 selves, with two ovules in each cell ; micropyle superior and exte- 

 rior. Fruit drupaceous, with rive stones. Seeds albuminous. — 

 (1 genus ) 



III. Luxemburgle. — Gynseeeum generally eccentric, with parietal 

 placentas (2-5), more or less prominent, multiovulate upon the edges. 

 Fruit capsular, septicidal, polyspermous. Seeds albuminous. — 

 (6 genera.) 



All the species of this last series, fifteen or sixteen in number, are 

 natives of the tropical regions of South America. The Etithe- 

 midete, three or four in number, belong entirely to Malaysia. The 

 only known Tetramerista is from Sumatra. The genus Elvasia is 

 entirely American. All the Ocluias belong, on the contrary, to the 

 tropical or subtropical regions of the Old World. The genus 

 Ouratea has the most extended geographical area. It is represented 

 in tropical America by about two-thirds of its species, that is to 

 say, some fifty ; but it is met with in Asia and Africa, and in 

 Oceania is found that particular form constituting the subgenus 

 Brackefiridgea. 



The only common characters of all the members of this small 

 family are the wood}^ consistence of the stem, the alternation of the 

 leaves, the presence of stipules, the convexity of the floral receptacle, 

 the independence of the petals, and the absence of the glandular- 

 disk. But there are other characters very frequent, without being 

 absolute. These are principally : the simple nature of the leaves, 1 

 their mode of nervation, the secondary nerves being crowded, parallel, 

 oblique or nearly perpendicular to the principal nerve, and the fine, 

 regular marginal cuts, like the teeth of a saw, sometimes glandular, 2 

 the prolongation of the receptacle into a column of variable height 

 between the insertion of the androceum and gynseceum. The other 

 characters are subject to variations ; those drawn from the orga- 

 nization of the gymeceum and fruit have been used, as we have seen, 

 to distinguish the series or tribes ; the others to separate the genera. 



1 Pinnate in the only Godoya (Rutidanihera) 2 With punctuate edges in Pcecilandra and 



splcndida Pi,, (in Hook. Lond. Journ., v. .51!!), Blastemanthus ; a character found in some 

 t. 19, 20), of New Grenada (vulg. Quit brahacha). ;,n.d"gous types of the allied family Eu'aceee. 



R B 2 



