90 OLD AND NEW GENERA OF: PLANTS 
plants of one genus! Such is in fact the case with the generally 
recognized genus Fraxinus of the manuals.’ About the only notable 
character that determines such a genus is the uniformity of the 
fruit. Apply such a principle or set of principles to the orchids 
and what chaos would result! The characters being considered 
as constant we can scarcely see that petaliferous and apetalous 
plants should be left in the same genus. 
APETLORHAMNUS Nov. Gen. 
Small shrub with branches thornless. Flowers pentamerous, 
solitary, or 2 to 3 in the axils coming out with the.leaves. Petals 
none: fruit a subglobose drupe with three nutlets, each three 
grooved. 
Arbuscula sine spinis in ramis, floribus cum partibus quinis; 
singulis vel paucis axillaribus foliis coaetaneis: petalis nullis: 
fructu drupaceo cum nuculis tribus, canaliculatis. 
The genus is quite distinctive by its apetalous flowers. Such 
an important character alone were enough to require its segrega- 
tion, a character that can not be overlooked. 
Apetlorhamnus alnifolia (L’Her.) Nwd. 
Rhamnus alnifolia J, Her., Sert. Angl., 5 (1788). 
LITANUM 
Talinum parviflorum Nutt. differs considerably from the 
other members of the genus particularly by having only five 
stamens whereas the others have always at least twice as many. 
The presence or absence of a whole whorl of the floral organs is 
a yery notable variation in flower structure and about as im- 
portant as the presence or absence of petals or sepals. The capsule 
is quite different in shape and accordingly a difference in the 
placentation from the other plants of the group. ‘This plant 
differs then as much if not more from its present congeners than 
does the newly made Crunocallis’ from the other Clayvonias. 
LitanumM Nov. Gen. 
Planta perennis cum foliis teretis linearibus basi dilatatis: 
pedunculis tenuibus, floribus cymosis parvis, sepalis brevioribus 
ovatis, acutis: staminibus 5, vel paucioribus, stylo staminibus 
longiore: capsula elliptica. 
Litanum parviflorum (Nutt.) Nwd. 
Talinum parviflorum Nutt., T. and G., Fl. N.Am. I, 197 (1838). 
