278 



THE SPECIES 



MT 



political British India (including th 



Nicob 



and Andaman Islands), and the provinces 



of th 



Malay Penin 



which, together with the islands of Singapore 



d Penang, 



are 



administered by the Government of the Strait 



Settlement 



By 



by Jussie 



Adanson. Mijristica was reg 



arded as part of the family of Pistackiers 



it was 



considered to be part of the L 



Robert Bro 



was 



the 



first to recognize that, for the genus, ordinal rank is necessary ; and he placed his 



order Myristicece between Protectees 



d Laurinece, bel 



closely allied to 



ther. This is pretty much the positio 



the late Mr. Bentham and Sir Joseph Hooker, who 



ng, however, that it is not 

 n assigned to the family by 

 their Genera Plantarum, place 



the family with Pip 



and Monimiacece in a group next to that which contains 



Laurinece, Proteacece, and Thijmeleacece, 



M. DeCandolle, however 



his Prodromus, plac 



Myristi 



between Polyg 



d Proteacece. Besides the similarity 



leaf-typ 



and 



in 



habit the affinity with Laurinece lies in the unisexual apetalous flowers 



Th 



is no doubt that 



Endl 



Lindley, Sir Joseph Hooker 



is an 



all 



with A 



pointed out) there 



perianth ; extrorse anthers ; apocarpous 



fruit 



d Dr. T. Thomson 

 account of the trimerous, valvate 

 ruminate albumen, and minute embryo. 



on 



And, in their Plot 



Indies Messrs. Hooker and Thomson actually put Myristicece 



to 



Anonacece. There appears 



to me to be little doubt that the Anonaceous genus Stele 



hocarp 



also affords a connecting link, not only by its dioecious flowers, but by its 



dotted aromatic leaves. Nutmegs, however, differ from Anonads in the great develop 

 inent of the arillus in their seeds, and in their unisexual flowers 

 British India Sir Joseph Hooker, however, gives the order a place 



In the Flora 

 near Laurinece. 



Lindley' s opinion, Myristicece 



however, more closely allied to Menisp 



In 

 than to 



any other family; and so impressed was he, with this view that he placed the two 



\ 



orders 



his Menispermal alliance (along with Monimiacece, Schizand. 



and two other 



small families) at a 



considerable distance from his Ranal Alliance, which includ 



Anonacece; his chief argument for this arrangement being the 

 trimerous symmetry 



I character 



d 



of the flowers. Against this 



view of Lindley's there is to be urged 



versal occurrence 



the total difference of habit between Nutmegs and Menisperms; the un 



of ruminate albumen in the seeds of the former, whereas in many of the latt 



men is totally absent, and when present it is 



only 



lly ruminate; the 



alb 

 ds 



of 



Menispermacece, moreover, have no arillus. By the majority of botanists the Myristicece 

 are regarded as belonging to the single genus Myristica. But, within the genus, there 



is no doubt considerable 



ety of form, and the species arrange themselves into 



The first author to recognize th 



various, more or less natural, groups or sections. 



Loureiro, who in 1790 published his genus Enema. Blume is 



was 



section Pyrrhosa (Rumphia 



190) 



while he adopted Loureiro's g 



K\ 



section, and grouped the remaining species in the section Myristica proper 



> 



Hooker and Thomson 



the 



masterly account of the Indian species in the 



ponsible for the 



a as a 

 Messrs. 



r Flora 



Indica, added to the three sections recognized by Blume that of Irya ; while M. 

 DeCandolle, in treating of the species of the whole world, increased the total number 

 of sections in the genus to thirteen. Only seven of these sections, however, contain 



Asiatic species ; the members of five be 



o 



as has already been mentioned, entirely 



American, and the solitary member of the other being African (from Madagascar) 



In the Genera Plantarum of the late Mr. Benth 

 seven sections are 



and Sir Joseph Hooker 



«ih 



admitted for the species of the whole world, and of these two 



include purely Amer 



species 



