672 3I)\ Bentham's Account of two new Genera allied to Olacinese. 



Meisner*, and lastly Endlicherf, have all, with much doubt it is true, 

 placed them near Aurantiuceœ, whilst Lindley:}: inserts them, with equal 

 hesitation, among his Pittosporales^. 



The genera usually considered as true Olacineœ, are Olax, Linn., (including 

 Spermaxyrum,\^iih\\\., and FissUia, Commers.,) Heisterla, Linn., Xhnenia,h\nn., 

 Gotnphandra,Wa.\\., and, as anomalous forms, Opilia, Roxb., (including G/-o?<f/«, 

 Guillem.,) and Icacina, Adr. Juss. 'I'o tiiese I propose to add, besides Apodif- 

 tes, E. Meyer, Schondjurgk's new genus, which I have called Pogopetaliim, and 

 Leretia, Vellozo, now first described, also Schœpjia, Schreb., and Cansjera, 

 Lam. I do not advert to the genera of Du Petit Thouars and Blume, usually 

 enumerated at the end of Olacineœ, nor to Quilesia of Manuel Blanco, because, 

 until they shall have been more completely or more accurately described, their 

 affinities can only be guessed at ; and Balanites has long since been rejected 

 by Jussieu, though still occasionally added to Olacineœ, for no other reason 

 that I can perceive but from its having once been considered as a species of 

 Ximenia. 



The above-named genera consist chiefly of trees or shrubs, occasionally climb- 

 ing, unarmed, or in Ximenia and some species oï Olax, bearing axillary spines. 

 The leaves are alternate, exstipulatc, simple and entire, neither glandular nor 

 dotted. Tiie inflorescence is terminal only in Icacina and Apodi/tes, where it 

 is corymbose; in all the other genera it is axillary; glomerate in Heisteria -, 

 racemose in Ximenia, Olax, Schœpjia, Opilia and Cansjer-a, the flowers being 

 often distichously arranged in the racemes, sometimes irregular and even 

 solitary in the Australian, one East Indian, and one American species of Olax ; 

 cymose in Pogopefalani, Leretia, and in the male individuals of Gomphandra. 

 The bractes at the base of the pedicels are membranous and very small, 

 excepting in Opilia, where they are broad and iml)ricate before the raceme is 

 fully developed. Bracteolae are present in Schœpfia. 



The flowers are hermaphrodite in most cases, unisexual by abortion in 

 Gomphandra, and occasionally polygamous in Leretia. 



* Pluntantin Vasrulurium Genern, p. 45, Conimentarius, p. 33. 



t Genera Plaiitanim, p. 1041. % Introduction to the Natural S3'stcm, p. 32. 



§ Since this paper was read, I have received Decaisne's Memoir on the Mistletoe, in which he fully 

 concurs in Brown's views of the close affinity between the Ohwi/iete and Santalacece 



