226 Mr. Bentham's Observations on some Genera of Plants 



serie quadruplici corollse tubo accreta, inferioribus brevioribus. Antherce sub- 

 rotundee. Germen subrotundum. Stylus filiformis, longitudine staminum. 

 Stigma capitatum subtrifidum." 



The above character will be found in every respect, as far as it goes, ad- 

 mirably adapted to Pohl's Sfemmatosiphons, as well as to the original Symphcus, 

 and to Aublet's Ciponima ; for although the words Petala quinque rather indi- 

 cate a polypetalous corolla, yet their adherence at the base is plainly indicated 

 by the subsequent expression, Filamenta .... tubo corollte accreta. 



L'H6ritier in the first volume of the Linnean Transactions (p. 174.) first 

 proposed the joining the genera Hopea {Linn. Mant. p. 14.), Alstonia {Linn. 

 Fil. Suppl. p. 39.), and Ciponima {Aubl. Plant. Guian. i. p. 567- t. 226.) to 

 Symplocos, of which it became consequently necessary to modify the character 

 in many points, of which the most important are. Calyx superus quinquepar- 

 titus. Corolla .... campanulata .... petalis s. laciniis 5 — 10 .... basi in 

 tubum longitudine calycis coalitis .... Filamenta .... submonadelpha s. basi 

 inaequaliter connexa .... in plures ordines imbricata .... Germen inferum 

 .... Stigma .... subquinquelobum. To these were also added the carpolo- 

 gical characters, Linnaeus hiinself not having seen the fruit of his Symplocos. 



In regard to the relative situation of the calyx and ovarium (or germen, as 

 it was formerly termed,) there is here an inconvenience in expression still 

 adhered to generally by British botanists, although long since adverted to and 

 corrected by continental authors, who speak of the calyx as free or adnate, 

 instead of inferior and superior. In Symplocos and in all the genera associated 

 with it the tube of the calyx is generally more or less free from the ovary at 

 the time of flowering, but with the development of the fruit it adheres to it 

 more and more, till, at the maturity, the tube of the calyx becomes entirely 

 confounded with the fleshy pericarp, and the segments alone remain free, 

 crowning the fruit at the top, — a circumstance difficult to describe with'the 

 old nomenclature, unless on the supposition, that during the maturation the 

 calyx moves from its original point of insertion. 



As to the corolla and stamina, L'Heritier's character, intended to apply both 

 to Symplocos, Linn., and Hopea, Linn., is not so correct as Linneeus's for the 

 former genus, nor does it either apply with accuracy to the latter one, which 

 has scarcely any tube to the corolla, and in which the stamina cannot be said to 



