Mr. Bentham's Account of two new Genera allied to Olacineee. 683 



talum. Yet the imbricate aestivation of the corolla, the stamens often inde- 

 finite, the structure of the ovary, &c., will remove tiiem at least as far from 

 Olacinece as Humiriacece. 



Cornece, and some other allied albuminous orders, have also some resem- 

 blance to Olacineœ; but the essentially and completely adnate ovarium, the 

 epigynous disc, the ovules suspended from the apex of the cells, etc., remove 

 them much farther than the two last-mentioned orders. 



In the second tribe of Olaclnea', the Opilieœ, where the calyx is reduced to 

 little more than a dilatation of the torus, we have the nearest approach to the 

 Santalacece ; and, if it be admitted that there are true Santalaceous genera 

 witli a superior ovary, and if I am right in supposing that in the young bud 

 of Opilia and Cans/era there is more than one ovule, then these two genera 

 become so nearly intermediate between Olacece and Santalacece as to have 

 nearly as much claim to be associated with the latter as with the former. In- 

 deed it appears to me, from dried specimens, that the structure of the ovule 

 in Opilieœ, very different from that of Olaceœ, is very similar to that of The- 

 sium. Thus, whilst a considerable gap is observable between Olacineœ and 

 the nearest allied of the Dichlamydeous orders with which they have been 

 compared, the close connexion with Santalaceœ is completely established 

 through the Australian species of Olax and the Opilieœ. 



The third tribe, the Icacineœ, intimately connected with the two preceding 

 ones in most respects, recede from them in some remarkable jjoints, espe- 

 cially in the adherence of the placenta to one angle of the ovarium, and the 

 seed, which is consequently pendulous, not erect. I should therefore have 

 proposed them as a separate order, were it not for the remarkable resem- 

 blance to some true Olacineous genera in the arrangement of the floral parts, 

 without any distinctive character of importance, other than the one above 

 mentioned. 



I now add the detailed characters of the two new genera figured : — 



Apodvtes, E. Meyer. 



Calyx minimus, 5-dentatus, liber, persistens, fructifer immntatus. Corolla 

 hypogyna, petalis 5, oblongo-linearibus, sestivatione valvatis, intus gla- 

 bris, basi inter se et cum staminibus coalitis. Stamina 5, petalis alterna, 



VOL. XVIII. 4 u 



