468 



A simple comparison shows, that there is a coïncidence 

 in almost every particular, such as cannot be the outcome 

 of accidentai circumstanccs and as in classifying syste- 

 matic botany must needs lead to identification. As leading 

 features in this comparison we consider the very oblique 

 transverse walls of the vessels with their scalariform 

 perforations; the groundmass of the wood consisting of 

 fibre-tracheids ; the excessive scarcity of vvood parenchyma 

 and the occurrence of composite medullary rays — ail of 

 which are characters not found in many familles and 

 colncidlng only in that of the Ternstroemiaceae, Staphylea- 

 ceae and in some of the Olacineae. But the two last could 

 be excluded by différences in several other characters. 

 The objection mlght perhaps be made, that in our „Mlkro- 

 graphle des flolzes" we hâve studied only a comparatively 

 small number of familles, viz. 38, up to this date, and 

 that it would by no means be impossible, that afterwards 

 another family mlght be found colnciding as well or even 

 better than that of the Ternsiroemiaceae with the characters 

 found in Aptiana. But we are golng right through the 

 System, foUowlng the Gênera Plantarum of Bentham 

 and Hooker. Thus this objection Implies the probability, 

 that in a région of the System far distant from the 

 Ternstroemiaceae a family wlll be found showlng an anato- 

 mical structure of the wood colnciding in almost every 

 particular ^\ih.V[\-àioî\hQ Ternsiroemiaceae. Our expérience 

 in wood matters leads us to tax this probability as infi- 

 nitely small. But we do not know what lengths some 

 botanists mlght go in such a matter. The argumentation 

 stated above thus led us to the sclentific conviction that 

 Aptiana belongs to the Ternstroemiaceae. 



Having reached this point, we tried, making use of 

 the analytlcal key for the identification of the species in 

 our ^Mikographie and comparing the descriptions of the 



