[ 457 ] 



XXIX. Note on Hamamelis and Loropetalmn ; with a Description of a New Aniso- 

 phyllea/rom Malacca. By Daniel Oliver, Esq., F.L.B. 



Read February 20th, 1862. 



An examination, some months ago, of the genera of Hamamelidese, in respect to the 

 relations of a plant which I have since described in the Society's ' Transactions'* {Sycopsis), 

 incidentally led me to the comparison of the American and Asiatic species included, pro- 

 visionally, in the genus Hamamelis by the late Eobert Brown in his Botanical Appendix 

 to Abel's ' China ' t- I have since re-examined both species {H. virginica and H. chinensis), 

 and feel satisfied that they cannot be regarded as truly congeneric, and that they were 

 rightly separated by Walpers, though without amended generic diagnoses, in his ' Annales ' 

 (vol. i. p. 275)— the Chinese plant under the name Loropetalmn, as suggested by Mr. 

 Brown. 



They differ primarily in the structure of the anthers, lobation of the calyx, and foliage. 

 The anthers of the Chinese plant have their cells opening each by two vertical valves, and 

 their coimective produced into a curved subulate appendage equalling or slightly ex- 

 ceeding the cells. The calyx is quadrilobate, the scar of the limb being near the summit 

 of the fruit, or about |ths from the base. The leaves are evergreen, entire, with a few 

 curved and anastomosing secondary lateral veins. In IT. virginica, on the contrary, the 

 small anther-cells open each by a single, strongly recurved valve ; they are destitute of 

 the produced connective ; the calyx is divided almost to the base ; the deciduous leaves 

 have, on each side the midrib, usually 5 to 7 straight, secondary veins, passing directly 

 to the margin. These differences, I believe, constitute valid grounds for the generic 

 separation of the two species, and the name Loropetalum, as suggested by R. Browoi, 

 may suitably attach to the Chinese plant. The genus Hamamelis, however, is not lost to 

 Asia: a plant grooving in Japan {H. japonica, Sieb. et Zucc.) is, as remarked by Dr. Asa 

 Gray I, extremely near to H. virginica, and doubtless referable to the same genus with it. 

 In the Japanese plant the fruit becomes nearly superior, the scar of the calyx-limb being 

 about ith from the base. The foliage closely corresponds with that of the American 

 species. 



Adopting the genus Loropetalum, the uniovulate genera of Hamamelideae may be 

 briefly diagnosed thus : — 



* Flores apetali. 



Parrotia, C. a. M. Stamina 5-7 (antheris breyiter mucronatis [P. _per«eo], v. muticis [P. Jacquemontiana]). 

 Ovarium semiinferum. Folia decidua. (Caucasus, Persia, Kashmir.) 



* Supra, p. 83. t Page 375. 



X Bot. Memoirs, from ' Mem. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences,' n. s. vol. vi. p. 390. 



3q2 



