384 NATUEAL HISTORY OP PLANTS. 



flora of North America shows itself very distinctly in the genus 

 Maple. Thus the entire group of Negundo is limited to North 

 America and Japan. j4. cissifolium of Japan does not diflfer from A. 

 Negundo of America." Many species are mentioned by the author, 

 in both continents, as totally identical or at least as representing forms 

 quite analogous to one another. As to the species belonging pro- 

 perly to America, of a total of twenty-five, brought together in his 

 Revisio Generis Jcerum, Spach has enumerated nine which belong 

 to that country. He considers ten as European, and the others are 

 Asiatic. In 'Etuxo^e A. PseudoplatanuslaaiS been observed at an al- 

 titude of nearly 5000 feet, although its native place may be far from 

 being proved. It has been said to be indigenous to Denmark and 

 Holland, but the fact is most open to dispute for France and the 

 British Isles. The mode of distribution of the genera of the Sabiece 

 series is singular. The Sahia, that is to say the types with in- 

 dependent ovary,' are all from Eastern Southern Asia and the 

 Indian Archipelago ; whilst the Meliosma., with plurilocular ovary, 

 most of them belonging to the same regions, extend though by 

 a small number' of species (those which have served as types 

 for the genera OUgostemon, OpMaoylon., and Phoxanthus) to a very 

 distant point in the two Americas, to Mexico, Columbia, North 

 Brazil and Guiana. 



The Sapindacece are placed between the TereUnthacea and Mal- 

 pighiaceae. They are distinguished from the first by their irregular 

 flowers in the series of Pancoviece, ^sculece, and Melianthece and 

 generally in the series with regular flowers by the situation of 

 their disk' almost always exterior to the stamens. When it is excep- 

 tionally interposed or even interior to them, the ovule is usually as- 

 cendent with the micropyle exterior and inferior, while that of the 

 TereUnthaceo} is directed upwards. As however this direction of the 

 ovule is also observed sometimes among the Sapindaece^ it must be 

 noticed that they have not the balsamic resinous or acrid juice of 

 the Terebinthaeece, nor the uniovulate, unilocular ovary of the 

 Anacardiece, surmounted generally by several styles, and that the 

 Terebinthaeece have not the aril so frequently developed in the Sapin- 

 dacece. These differ from the MalpigJdacew, of which they fre- 

 quently have the regular flower and the samaroid fruit, in the large 

 development of the disk and in the ovules. The glands of the 



