170 ' THE BOTANICAL MAGAZINE. CVoi. xxix. No. 346. 



30, tab. 12). Hooker points out that there is no trace of 



perianth, and that 'what De Candolle took for petals 



must have been stamens, from which the anthers had fallen.' 

 Unfortunately, both the description and figures given by Hooker 

 are inaccurate in certain respects especially with regard to the 

 floral mechanism. 



Bentham working out the family Berberidaceae for the 

 Genera Plantarum had ample material for examination, and was 

 able to give a better diagnosis of the genus (2, p. 45). He was 

 the first to make out the arrangement of stamens 1} , and to 

 furnish a short description of the fruit 2 '. 



Baillon in 1872, ten years after the publication of the 

 Genera Plantarum, states that there are 6-12 stamens in a 

 single flower (1, pp. 61, 66). 



In the same year the true nature of fruit of Achlys was very 

 accurately described by Asa Gray (7, p. 376). He 'points out 

 that the fruit is ' certainly not " bivalvatim dchiscens " nor 

 dehiscent at all'. He also rightly compares the ventral fleshy 

 ridge of fruit with the thickened placenta of Podophyllum, since 

 that structure is, as a matter of fact, the ventral suture of the 

 ovary. 



In 1876, Brewer and Watson (3, pp. 15-16) described the 

 genus most accurately except for some points regarding the 

 stamens 3) . 



In 1888 there appeared Calloni's paper on the genus Achlys 

 (4), in which the author gives a detailed account of the evolution 

 of the leaf, and of the morphology of the perigone and the 

 stamen. Calloni gives an accurate description and figures of 

 the stamens (4, p. 31, tab. ix, figs. 15-21), and also states that 

 the andrcecium of Achlys consists of 6, or more frequently 9 

 stamens. He also points out (4, p. 31) that Hooker's descrip- 

 tion of the anther is erroneous, since the anther of Achlys is 

 comparable with that of Berberis, Epimedium and Leontice. 



1) ' Stamina (an semper ?) 9, 3-serialia.' 



2) 'Capsula parva (dorso bivalvatim dehiscens ?) .' 



3) 'Stamens 9, in 3 rows; filaments slender, the outer dilated at the summit; 

 anthers short'. 



