636 Some account of the Botanical Collection. [No. 7. 



pendently of any apparent production inwards of any parts of the 

 placental surface. Hvpothetically this is explainable by assuming 

 the ovula to be confined to that part of the carpellary leaf with 

 which almost invariably they have no manner of connection. In 

 other words, they may be declared to arise from the back of the 

 carpel leaf, or from the midrib, and the space on either side between 

 it and the inflected margins.* 



Appearances, derived from the examination of Pternandra coeru- 

 lescens, are not perhaps altogether unfavourable to the supposition, 

 that there is a disturbance in the direction of the carpel leaves 

 analogous to that which affects some, perhaps most Boraginese, 

 by which the true apex of each carpellum is brought close to the 

 base, and in which, as appears to me suggested by the situation 

 of the raphe, the placenta has a disposition to be dorsal ; so that if 

 a polysporous placenta be found to exist in a carpellum so consti- 

 tuted, it may, I am inclined to conjecture, be as dorsal as it is in 

 Pternandra. 



Prom the evidence afforded by this genus, it would appear, that an 

 "ovarium inferum" may have part of its cavities, or even of its 

 placenta? actually superior ; that is, above the line drawn when the 

 term "ovarium inferum" is made use of; which term, nevertheless, 

 is perhaps quite as admissible in many instances as that of ovarium 

 adherens. 



Myetace^. — I refer without doubt to Tristania, one of Mr. 

 White's Plants. It is the fourth Indian species of the genus I 

 have met with, the northerly limit of which, so far as yet known, 

 appears to be Moulmein, 17° N. L. This is a fact of some interest, 

 as Mr. Bennettf states, that he is only acquainted with one species 

 found beyond the limits of N. Holland. In connection with this 

 I may mention Stylidium, which is perhaps the last Australian form 



* Most of the instances hitherto cited as exhibiting dorsal placentation, appear 

 to me to be untenable, and naturally explicable. But it is certain that Monocoty- 

 ledonous monstrosities do occur, in which the buds arise from the inner surface of 

 the leaves to the exclusion of the usually gemmiferous margins. Of this I met with 

 a marked instance in a Liliaceous plant in Eastern Affghanisthan. 

 f PI. Jav. Rar. Pt. 11, p. 128. 



