32 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



of Hvppocratece, a small family the close affinity of which with the 

 Celastracem had already been perceived by E. Brown. Since then 

 we have shbwn^ that the genus Canotia, previously referred to the 

 Rosacece, and the Salvadorem, till then considered as forming a 

 distinct family of plants with gamopetalous corolla, ought to be 

 inclnded in the family of Celasiraceae? "We have elsewhere con- 

 tended ^ that the Boxes, so long classed with the Euphorhiacece, 

 should be separated from them and form, perhaps, diminished types 

 of Celastracece, with apetalous and diclinous flowers. In a new and 

 recent examination of this family we have been confirmed in our 

 opinion by the study * of a small order lately considered autonomous, 

 and formed of a single monotypic genus Geissoloma. This plant, 

 hitherto allied with the Penceacece, though possessing none of the 

 essential characters, is, in our opinion, much nearer the Boxes, 

 intermediate between the latter on one side, and the diplostemonous 

 Celastraceoe, such as Ghssopetalon, on the other. We have also 

 pointed out ' why StacMousia, whose floral organisation is exactly 

 that of the Celastracece, could not be separated from them on account 

 of its habit and foliage, seeing that the peculiarities it presents in tliis 

 respect are found in certain genera of the next family, and yet no 

 one has dreamed of separating them from the rest of the family 

 of Rhamnacece. Canotia, which, as we have just said, can be placed 

 only among the Celastracece, has also much of the habit of Crumenaria 

 {Rhamnacece) and of Staekhousia. So we have comprised in this 

 family seven series, the general characters of which we thus re- 

 capitulate : 



1. EuontmejE.^ — Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous, isoste- 

 monous, rarely diplostemonous. Petals free, imbricate or valvate, 

 inserted with the stamens outside the margins of a disk variable in 

 form, convex, plane, or concave. Seeds ordinarily albuminous. — 

 Trees or shrubs. — 28 genera. 



2. Stackhousie^.^ — Flowers hermaphrodite isostemonous. Petals 



1 Adansmia, x. 18 (1871). trib. l.~Celastrea B. H. Gen. 360, tiib. 1.— 



- Aiansonia, ix. 277 (1870). Eleodendrea Endl. op. cit. 1087, trib. 2. 



3 Monoffr. Buxac. et Styloc. 39 (1859). 7 StaokhoufeiB R. Bb. Flind. Yoy. ii. S55.— 



^ Bull. Soc. Linn. Par. 31 ; Adansmia, xi. Stachhousiaceat Lindl. Introd. ed. 2, 118 ; Feg. 



281 (1874). Kingd. 589, Ord. i^Q—Endl. Oen. 1106, Ord.242! 



5 Adansmia, he. cit. 290. —Staekhomica, Ao. Theor. Syst. Flant. 359, t. 26, 

 « DC. Frodr. ii. 3, trib. 2.— Endl. Oen. 1085, fig. 12.— B. H. Qm. 371, Ord. 48. 



