HAMAMELIDE.E. 85 
anthers of Sycopsis I have not been fortunate enough to find subsequent to dehiscence ; 
they are very similar before bursting to those of DistyUum and the African genus 
Trichocladus. 
In connexion with this notice it is scarcely within my province to inquire at length 
into the general relations of the Hamameliclea. Excepting a somewhat anomalous mode 
of dehiscence in the anthers of a few species (at least oiEustigma, Tctrathyria, and Ha ma- 
melts ckinensis), and the singular stipules of Bucklandia, the order does not oiler any 
very salient peculiarity, neither does it afford any well-marked type of structure pervading 
its members. Mr. Griffith, in his ' Observations on Cantor's Plants *,' and Tulasne in 
"Fragmenta Elorse Madagascariensis t," remark the rather complex character of the affi- 
nities of the order, and the variety in the structure and disposition of some of the floral 
whorls presented by its various genera. The more characteristic features of the Ilauia- 
melidea may be said to reside in their arborescent or frutescent growth ; the prosenchyma 
bearing discoid markings from the presence of minute intercellular lenticular cavities ; 
leaves nearly invariably alternate and stipulate ; perigynous or epigynous and definite 
stamens in nearly all of the hermaphrodite species ; the more or less inferior bicarpel- 
lary and bilocular ovary (in DistyUum quite superior) with distinct styles ; the ovules 
solitary and pendulous, or in the pluriovulate genera, with the exception of one or two 
in each loculament, mostly abortive. The order presents in these characters much in 
common with Cornacece (including Alangiea? and Nyssa), near which Dr.Lindley disposes 
it. Of this order it may not improbably be regarded as a section, especially as a Tri- 
chocladus of South Africa and a Dicoryphe described by Tulasne, from Madagascar, have 
opposite leaves ; and as, further, in some genera we find the flowers closely aggregated 
into a dense capitulum (as in Benthamia or in Nyssa & and sometimes also provided with 
conspicuous involucral bracts analogous to those of some species of Cornus (as in Bhodo- 
leia and Barrottia) : the frequently tetramerous symmetry of the flower jmd the tendency 
to a valvate aestivation of the petals favour this view of their affinity, 
and the Saxifragal alliance (as observed by Drs. Hooker and Thomson 
indicated by the curious stipules of Bucklandia, as well as by other of the character 
"With Cun 
affinit 
ated 
To Bruniacece the order is allied in some important particular 
noted bv Robert Brown and Prof. Lindley 
tive, p. 375), that it might not improbably be considered generically distinct frorn H^inic a on the fl^*** 
^JT*uJL. .. 1 -,.,- _JL_. La AcofiravrPnwks f« Botanical Memoirs' [from Mem. Am. Acad, of Arts 
H. iaponica ( 
H 
implying, consequently, his sense of the importance of this distinction. 
Brown (/. c. p. 375) 
the range permitted in the yet more important particular of the structure of the anthers 
* p 24 + Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 4 
142. 
t The eWate revolute laterally-stigmatose style of Nytsa recalls that of some HamameUde* 
§ 
