connected with the Flora of Guiana. 227 



be imbricate. The stigma may as well be described as subquinquelohum as sub- 

 tr'ifidum, for the carpellary number varies from three to five in most species. 

 L'H6ritier's character of the fruit, as far as it goes, applies to all his species. 



Persoon in his Synopsis (vol. ii. p. 74.) adopts L'Heritier's views in uniting 

 Alstonia and Ciponima with Symplocos, but again separates Hopea ; and Gsert- 

 ner {Carpologia, iii. p. 139. et seq. t. 209./. \, 2, 3.) not only follows Persoon in 

 considering the latter genus as well characterized by a pentapetalous corolla, 

 pentadelphous stamina, and a trilocular drupe, but also re-establishes Ciponima, 

 distinguishing it chiefly by the stamina being in a double, not in a quadruple 

 row, as in Symplocos, the anthers bilocular, not quadrilocular, the drupe qua- 

 drilocular, and the embryo erect, not inverted as in Hopea. 



Of all these characters, those derived from the corolla and stamina alone 

 appear to be of any importance. The quadrilocular anthers of Symplocos are a 

 mistake ; the position of the embryo, it is now well known, varies in Symplocos 

 in different seeds in the same drupe, and the number of cells of the ovary is 

 very variable, at least in the true species of Symplocos. 



On these grounds, probably, Bonpland {PI. JEquin. i. p. 180.), followed by 

 Kunth, {Nov. Gen. et Sp. PI. Amer. iii. p. 256.) returns to L'Heritier's opinion, 

 that the four genera form but one. In the first of these works Bonpland adds 

 to the six species then known eight new ones, and commences his monogra- 

 phic sketch with a new character, in which the corolla is described as " disco 

 epigyno imposita, polypetala vel monopetala; polypetala, petalis circiter 10, 

 duplici serie dispositis, exterioribus majoribus, basi in formam tubi arete co- 

 haerentibus, monopetala, tubo brevi, laciniis 10 ut in polypetala dispositis." 

 This is evidently taken from S. Alstonia {PL ^quin. t. 6 1 .) and S. coccinea 

 (t. 52.) ; it is also applicable, with a slight modification as to the number of 

 petals of the inner series, to S. cenma (t. 63.), but is completely at variance 

 as well with S. serrulata and S. rufescens, figured in the same work (t. 54 & 55.), 

 as with the original S. martinicensis, Aublet's Ciponima, and Linnseus's Hopea. 



The subsequent additions to the genus consist chiefly of Asiatic species, of 

 which S. sinica was figured and described in detail by Ker in the Botanical 

 Register (vol. ix. t. 710.), the S. Loha, Sumuntia, thecefolia, and cratcegoides 

 were established by D.Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepalensis, p. 144., the S. racemosa, 

 spicata, and ferruginea, by Roxburgh Fl. Ind. Or. vol. ii. p. 539. None of these 



