Notes on Indian Botany. 167 



equal force, since it is just as correct to say that Vacciniaceae 

 are the representatives of the Perigynous sub-class in the 

 Epigynous, as that they are the representatives of the Epi- 

 gynous in the Perigynous. 



Influenced by the great preponderance of evidence addu- 

 ced in favour of the generally admitted relationship of 

 Vacciniaceae and Ericaceae, and perhaps attaching less im- 

 portance to characters taken from the mere relative extension 

 and cohesion of the calycine tube with the ovary, than the 

 celebrated author of the invaluable work so often referred 

 to, it does not appear to me that the change of station of 

 the former of these orders, from the Erical to the Cinchonal 

 alliance, is an improvement, and I therefore anticipate its re- 

 tention in its old place by future botanists. 



Having premised these general observations on the affi- 

 nities of the order, I shall now proceed to offer a few 

 remarks on the limits of the genus Vaccinium itself. These 

 I extract from the first part of Vol. 4th of my Icones, 

 which will shortly be published, adding characters of some 

 new species figured in that work, principally derived from 

 the collections of the late Mr. Griffith, also of a new species 

 of Gaultheria, and two of Rhododendron, derived from the 

 same source. 



" VACCINIUM. 



Dunal, in his monagraph of the Order Vaccinia, retains Agapetes 

 and Thibaudia. Endlicher, Miesner, and Lindley unite them : Kunth 

 is followed by Miesner in expressing a doubt as to whether Cera- 

 tostema is distinct from Thibaudia, and Hooker states that he "can- 

 not understand what are the essential distinguishing marks between 

 them." Among the following are species which have been referred 

 by different Botanists to Ceratostema, Agapetes, Thibaudia, Gaylussa- 

 cia and Vaccinium. To determine among so many genera it became 

 indispensable to examine the characters of all with much care. After 

 the closest scrutiny and careful dissection of the flowers of all the 



