March 11, 1872. 
The PRESIDENT (PROFESSOR HumPHRY) in the Chair. 
Fellow elected :— 
J. W. CaRTMELL, M.A. Christ's College. 
Communications were made to the Society: 
(1) A Monograph of the Ebenacee. By W. P. Hiern, 
M.A. 
The family Hbenacew was first established by Ventinat in 
1799; it was revised by Jussieu in 1804; and in 1810 it was 
reduced to its present limits by the great botanist Brown. 
In 1837, Geo. Don, in his “General System of Gardening and 
Botany ” vol. iv., gave an account of the whole family as under- 
stood by him; he enumerated about 80 species which he dis- 
tributed among 8 genera. 
In 1844, Alphonse De Candolle monographed the family in 
the eighth volume of the “Prodromus systematis Naturalis 
regni vegetabilis,’” and produced 160 species and 8 genera. 
Three of these genera were new and several of Don’s genera 
were not maintained. 
In the present monograph 5 genera only are recognized, 
namely, Royena and Euclea from Africa, Maba and Diospyros 
from various countries, and Tetraclis from Madagascar, the last 
of which is new; and among these are distributed about 250 
species. An account is also given of the fossils that have been 
published as members of the family, but little confidence is 
placed in the determination of the genera or family in the case 
of the great majority of the fossil species, and they are not 
included in the above-mentioned estimate. 
