as a distinct Natural Order from Myrtaceae. 



89 



" To the Myrteee we, with Mr. Lindley, unite the Grancttea, be- 

 cause Punka or the pomegranate only differs by having its two ver- 

 ticals of carpels developed instead of one, and perhaps in a truly wild 

 state the upper or adventitious one may occasionally disappear. The 

 inner series (or those at the bottom of the fruit) have their placentas 

 in the axis ; but the outer series, forced to the top of the fruit by the 

 contraction of the mouth of the tube of the calyx, having their pla- 

 centas in the ovary at the back of the inner carpels, exhibit them in 

 the ripe fruit in a horizontal position on the upper surface of the 

 lower cells." — Arnott (/. c.) et Prod. Fl. Peninsula, i. p. 327. 



Premising that the whole controversy turns on these ques- 

 tions, — 1st, what is the true structure of a pomegranate ; and 

 2nd, whether the difference between it and Myrtus is suffi- 

 cient to separate these genera as distinct orders ; — I shall now 

 proceed to examine these conflicting statements, and endea- 

 vour to ascertain on which side the balance preponderates, 

 and whether, indeed, there is not room for an explanation 

 different from any of those yet proposed. 



Mr. Don's description of this fruit, on the strength of which 

 he first proposed to remove this genus from Myrtaceae, the 

 order with which it was previously associated, as a distinct 

 family, appears to me untenable. He, as I understand, con- 

 siders the fruit a one-celled receptacle, the centre of which is 

 filled with a spongy placenta, round the surface of which 

 there are a number of irregular cells occupied by clusters of 

 ovules ; but he does not tell us how the central placenta got 

 there, neither does he account for the ovules being attached 

 to the parietes of the cell, and not to the central placenta. 



DeCandolle gives a more correct description of it when he 

 says, that it consists of two chambers, the under three-celled, 

 the upper from five- to nine-celled, with the placentas of the 

 upper ceils reaching from the parietes to the centre, while 

 those of the lower division proceed irregularly from the bot- 

 tom of the fruit. He does not, however, assign this peculiar 

 structure as his principal reason for viewing the order as di- 

 stinct from Myrtacece* but has recourse to others, in my esti- 

 mation, of minor importance. 



Lindley conceives that there are two rows of carpels, three 

 or four of which surround the axis at the bottom, while the 

 remainder surround these, and, occupying the upper part of 

 the fruit, adhere to that part of the tube of the calyx. The 

 placentas of these upper carpels, he conceives, contract an 

 irregular kind of adhesion with the back and front of their 

 cells. The meaning of this is far from being clear to me ; but 

 if it means that he considers the placentas of the upper as 

 well as the lower row to proceed from the axis towards the 

 circumference, to which last they contract accidental adhe- 



