Ord SAXIFRAGACEi5.* 



1. ESCALLONIA, Mutts. 



1. ESCALLONIA SERRATA, Smith. 



Escallonia serrata, Smith, Ic. PI. Ined. t. 31 ; DC. Prodr. 4, p. 3 ; Hook. Ic. PI. t. 

 540 ; Hook. f. Fl. Antarc. p. 279. 



Hab. Orange Harbour, Fuegia ; where it is a very abundant shrub. 



* Mr. Brown, in indicating the Cunoniacece and Escalloniece as separate orders (in 

 Flinders, Voy., and in Frankl. Narr.), remarked, that they were to be distinguished 

 from Saxifragece by their habit, rather than by any important characters of fructifica- 

 tion: and the remark still holds true. M. Alphonse DeCandolle (in Monogr. Cam- 

 panul. p. 91, 1830), after seeking in vain for any floral characters whatever, proposed to 

 consider them as tribes of Saxifragaceee ; — a view which was adopted in the Prodromus, 

 by his father, and also by Endlicher, the latter merely raising four of the tribes of De- 

 Candolle to the rank of orders, and appending Bauera to the Cunoniece, as Brown had 

 suggested. In the Flora of North America (1840), another suborder was added for 

 Philadelphus, a genus which, although usually associated with two real Hydrangea- 

 ceous genera (Decumaria and Deutzid), was generally considered to be the type of a 

 distinct order, and placed in the vicinity of Myrtacece. I am not aware that this view 

 has been followed by any botanist, except Dr. Hooker, who in his Flora Antarctica 

 (1847), under Comidia, distinctly refers Philadelphus to the "class Saxifragece:' 

 There is nothing to distinguish Philadelphus from the Uydrangiece except the convolute 

 aestivation of the petals, which, although peculiar, is surely not of subordinal conse- 

 quence. Whatever value might have been assigned to it, as separating Philadelphus 

 from the Saxifragaceee, is now reduced to insignificance by the convolute-imbricated 

 aestivation of the petals of Jamesia, Torr. & Gray (vide PI. Fendl. p. 55), their imbri- 

 cated aestivation in Fendlera, Engelm. & Gray (PI. Wright. 1, p. 77, & 2, p. 64), 

 and the almost free ovary in Carpenteria, Torr. PI. Fremont, p. 12, t. 7, which in 

 other respects scarcely differs from Philadelphus itself. It would seem, therefore, that 

 the order Saxifragaceee should embrace five tribes, nearly as adopted by DeCandolle, 

 characterized solely by their organs of vegetation, namely: — the Escalloniece; woody 

 plants, with alternate, simple leaves, destitute of stipules ; the Cunoniece, with opposite 



