228 Mr. Bentham's Observations on some Genera of Plants 



authors, however, appear to have much studied the generic character, which 

 they have taken more or less from some of the above-mentioned botanists, 

 Don observing only " Genus forte iterum dividendun)." 



Since the above I am not aware of any modification in the character or spe- 

 cies of Si/mplotos, until the publication of the last volume of G. Don's General 

 System of Gardening and Botany, where all the hitherto published species are 

 collected, those merely named in Wallich's Catalogue are described, the genus 

 is retained as establislied by L'Héritier and Bonpland, but raised to tlie rank 

 of a natural order, and divided into three sections: Alstoiiia, containing ail 

 the American species said to be distinguished by an 8 — 10-parted corolla, the 

 segments in a tlouble row, stamens in 3 or 4 series, and a half inferior drupe ; 

 Lodhrii, consisting of 1/ Asiatic species, to which are attributed a 5-parted 

 corolla, stamens inserted without order, and an inferior drupe ; and Pahtra, 

 described as liaving tlie same corolla, with stamens in a triple series, and an 

 inferior ovary. Under tliis section are enumerated two remaining Asiatic 

 species. 



These characters, however, by no means correspond with the specific cha- 

 racters given in the same work to several of the species, and will be found on 

 examination still more at variance in many instances with the plants them- 

 selves. Thus in the section Alsto)iia, three species at least have a 5-parted 

 corolla, the segments in many of them are not in a double row; the stamens 

 of .v. tincforia ai'c arranged as in the Asiatic species, and the calyx is as ad- 

 herent to the tirupe in A/stoiiia as in Lodlira and Pa/iira. In the latter respect 

 I cannot see any différence between the S.sinica and the several plants referred 

 to LoJlira; and if there is any greater regularity in the arrangement of the 

 stamina in S. eratœgoides than in Lodhra, it is that they are moi'e decidedly 

 pentadelphous and not biseriate. 



Amidst all these conflicting opinions, after a careful examination of a con- 

 siderable number of both American and Asiatic species, it appears to me that 

 there do exist three distinct groups, which it might be adviseable to consider 

 as so many genera. In the true Sijmploeos of Linnœus the stamina are erect, 

 the filaments are flat, monadelphous at the base, free in the upper part, where 

 they are distinctly imbricated in three or four rows, and suddenly attenuated 

 below the anther; the corolla is erect and adherent to the staminal tube, 



