RHAMNACE.ÏÏ. <S5 



Efiissekia), as well as those his colleague Fenzl l had just established, 

 viz. Trymalium and Spyridium, also Helinus E. Met., till then re- 

 maining m manuscript in herbaria, Ochetophila oî Poeppig, Discaria of 

 W. Hooker, 2 Karwimkia of Zuccarini, 3 Adolphia of Meissner, 4 and 

 Talgucnca observed in Chili by Miers. 5 The latter, revising in 

 a detailed monograph the entire group of Colletieœ? which then 

 comprised five genera, retains a sixth, Trevoa, established at the same 

 time as Talguenea. The number of genera is thus raised to thirty- 

 one. Eeissek, studying this family for the Flora Brasiliensis, 1 found 

 there another new type, Rhamnidium ; he afterwards established the 

 Australian genus Stenanthemum. 8 All are adopted in his Genera by 

 J. Hooker, 9 who, in the same work, creates the two African types 

 Nesiota and Zasiodiscus, and revives the old generic name Sarcom- 

 phalus P. Br. "With him, then, the RJiamnacece number thirty-seven 

 genera, including Smythea of Seemann, 10 and Microrhamnus of A. 

 Gray, 11 with us only a Condalia with a corolla. The genera 

 -Emmenosperma of F. Mueller 13 and Macrorhamn/is, which we have 

 just proposed, 13 complete the total of thirty-eight. This number is 

 probably too great, regard being had to the species known. It 

 consists of a group very closely natural in most of its parts, the 

 generic differences of which are frequently of small value ; and it is 

 probable that a certain number of genera actually retained may dis- 

 appear as intermediate species are observed which may serve as 

 natural links between many of them. 11 



Whatever may be the limits of the genera, those of the tribes 

 hitherto adopted have been singularly effaced by the most recent 

 discoveries. The Colletieœ represent the series best characterised by 

 habit and organisation of perianth, but among them, Adolphia has 



1 Enum. PI. Hueg. (1837). n Jdansonia, xi. (1874). 



2 Bot. Misc. i. (1830). M For example the various genera of the 



3 Plant. Nov. Fasc. i. (1832). group Colletieœ. Among the Mhamneœ, the 



4 Gen. 70 (1836-1843). Alphitonias seemed at first to constitute a per- 

 s Trao. in CHI. and la Plata, u. (1826). lectly distinct genus. Now that we know 

 « On the tribe Colletieœ, with some Obs. on the better certain Colubrinas with a ferruginous 



Seed in .... Rham. {Ann. Nat. Sist. ser. 3, v. 76 ; down, smooth seeds persisting on the placenta 



Contrib. i. 230, t. 33-24). after tho fall of the cocci, and an ovary present- 



? Mart. Fl. Bras. Shamn. (1861). ing the same adherence, the distinction be- 



8 JAnncea, xxix. (1857-58). tween the two genera becomes scarcely appre- 



9 Gen. 371, Ord. 49 (1862). ciable. The fruit of Nesiota once known, this 



10 Bonplandia (1861). type becomes very difficult to separate otherwise 



11 PI. Wright, p. i. (1852). than as a section of Phijlica with broad whitish 



12 Fragm. Phgt. Austral, iii. (1862-63). leaves, etc. 



VOL. VI. 



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