GOBDONIA. 139 



Pitard has taken a roughly parallel line. In the Actes de la 

 Societe Linneenne de Bordeaux, 1902, Comptes rendus, p. 54, he 

 tries to establish the genus Nubiasodendron for the Asiatic Gor- 

 donias, at the same time separating the two American species from 

 each other generically. Like Korthals he points to the arrange- 

 ment of the stamens ; but then Korthals did not know the Gordonia 

 speciosa of Ceylon which has its stamens in five distinct bundles 

 like G. Lasiarithus, and Pitard does ; so Pitard does not find 'the 

 character absolute and turns to the capsule for a supplementary 

 one, and after it to anatomical characters. 



Discontinuous distribution is by no means unusual in genera 



allied to Gordonia. Their demand for moisture 



rules their dispersion. 



Like Korthals, Pitard seems to have been dominated by an 

 idea that the discontinuous distribution requires that we should 

 find generic characters between those plants which occur in eastern 

 America, and those which occur in eastern Asia. It is a wrong 

 presumption because there are several allied genera equally astride 

 the Pacific, among those comprising the Theeae and Ternstroemieae 

 as the reader will observe if all the genera be enumerated : — 

 Bonnettia, coasts of tropical S. America. 



Archyiaea, coasts of the Pacific from S. America to Penang. 

 Asteropeia, Madagascar. 



Thea (including Camellia), from Assam to Japan and to Java. 

 Gordonia (i) eastern coasts of X. America. 



(ii) forests of the Himalaya and S. China to Java chiefly 

 on mountains. 



Haemocharis (i) W. Indies and tropical S. America. 



(ii) Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Moluccas. 

 Schima, as Gordonia (ii). 

 Hartia, S.-W. China. 

 Pyrenaria, as Gordonia (ii). 

 Stewartia (Stuartia) , (i) Mountains of eastern X. America. 



(ii) Japan. 

 Tern sir oemia, (i) S. America. 



(ii) as Gordonia (ii). 

 Patascot/a, north-west S. America at 10,000 feet. 

 Anneslea, Himalaya to the Philippine Islands. 

 Adinandra, (i) as Gordonia (ii). 



(ii) Island of St. Thome on the West coast of Africa,* 

 Ternstroemiopsis, Sandwich islands. 

 Burija, (i) Mexico and the W. Indies to Venezuela. 

 - (ii) India to the Pacific. 



* This isolated species needs re-examination. 

 R. A. Soc, No. 76, 1917. 



