284 ME. A. S. HOENE— A CONTEIBUTION TO 



[g) Melanophtlla. 



This genus was first described by Baker * in 1886. Two species — M. alnifolia and 

 M. aucubifolia — were recorded. According to Baker's description, the flowers are 

 hermaphrodite with alternate pentamerous whorls of sepals, petals, and stamens. The 

 ovary is hi- rarely trilocular and the styles bi- or trifid. The loculi are uniovulate, 

 Baker f described a new species, ilf. cr^wa^a, in 1896 with illustrations. Figures from 

 specimens of this species in the Herbarium Boissier are given by Wangerin % in ' Das 

 Pflanzenreich.' Only one loculus is shown in both Baker's and Wanfjerin's 

 illustrations. 



Baker, in 1886, states that two species of MelanopTiylla are comprised in Humblot's 

 collection from the north-east portion of the island of Madagascar. ■ Now in ' Plantes 

 dc Madagascar' §, a new species, M. Kumhloti, is figured which is evidently one of those 

 mentioned by Baker. This species is not recorded in *Das Pflanzenreich.' and no 

 written description seems to have been published, but it is mentioned in Palacky's || 

 'Plantarum Madagascariensium.* Accordino^ to the fio^ures of M. Kumhloti the 



stigmas, which are tongue-shaped, are not recurved as in Baker's species — the calyx is 



depicted with a waved rim and not with definite segments as in M. crenata, and there 



are slight differences in the ovary and the stamens. Only one loculus and one ovule 

 are figured. 



Wangerin associates Melanophylla with Griselinia to form a new tribe of Cornoidese, 

 the Griselinese. 



{h) Griselinia. 



Morphology of the Flower and Ovule. 



The plants and flowers of Griselinia are unisexual. The male flowers of G. littoralis 

 and G. lucida consist of sepals, petals, and stamens in alternating pentamerous whorls, 

 which surround a flat circular disc with five or six grooves radiating outward from 



or SIX g 



the centre. Ovarian rudiments are absent. The fem.ale flowers are epigynous, and 

 surmounted by sepals and petals in G. littoralis and by sepals only in G. lucida. The 

 petals are imbricate. Stamens are absent in all the species. Bentham & Hooker t 

 and Wangerin ** state that there are no rudiments of stamens, and none have hitherto 

 been recorded. The writer finds not only rudiments of stamens in G. littoralis and 

 G. lucida, but rudiments of the absent petals in G. lucida. These are very minute, but 

 they can be observed with the aid of a good pocket-lens. Text-fig. 11, K, represents a 

 transverse section of G, littoralis', here the positions of the petals are denoted by 



J. G. Baker in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot. xxi. (188G) 352. 

 t J. G. Baker in Hook. Ic. PI. xxv. (1896) pi. 2499. 

 t W. "Wangerin in Das Pflanzenr, Heft 41, 100. 

 § H. Baillon in ' Plantes de Madagascar/ Atlas, iii. pi. 400 (1896). 

 I) Palackf in Plant. Madagasc. fasc. iv. (1906) 50. 



f 



W. Wan 



