34 
58. PRIMULACE2E. 
bottom flat. Embryo pure w. cylindric slender straight or 
slightly curved, lying transversely across the centre and di- 
stinctly visible through the subpellucid substance of the bluish 
w. albumen parallel to the kilum. 
The wood of the Aderno is w., splitting or cleaving readily 
longitudinally, and not particularly hard or solid, but not break- 
ing easily across, and therefere probably elastic — resembling on 
the whole a good deal that of the Ash ( Fraxinus excelsior L.). 
Indeed in Machico it is much esteemed even for the keels of 
boats, and formerly, as Dr. Heberden told Solander, was used 
for the staves of casks, though now, and for the last 70 or 80 
years, entirely superseded for the last named purpose by 
American Oak. The fr. is produced abundantly, but is not 
much devoured even by birds. In fact it is almost quite flesh- 
less and very dry and insipid. It ripens mostly in Nov., but 
occurs also partially at other seasons. 
Though scarcely met with now below 3000 ft., the Aderno 
formerly grew quite down to the level of the sea. On the 
Ilheo do P 10 da Cruz, a small isolated rocklet off the port or 
promontory of the town, there existed formerly a conspicuous 
Aderno tr., from which in Oct. 1829 I gathered spec, in fr. 
This tr., which was of some note or celebrity amongst the 
people of the place, was destroyed by the great storm of wind 
in Oct. 1842. On the same rock in 1829 grew also shr. of Olea 
europccci (3 and of Sideroxylon Marmulano Lowe. 
The leaf-impressions figured by Prof. Ileer (Foss. PI. of S. 
Jorge p. 28, t. i. ff. 19-23) under the name of Myrica Faya L., 
assuredly belong rather to the present pi. 
Solander himself, in Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1, suppressed his 
own MS. genus Leucoxylum or Heberde?iia, founded on this pi., 
in favour of the then just previously published Ardisia Sw. ; 
nor can I discover in the Mad. pi. any sufficient ground for its 
revival. The inflorescence is indeed peculiar; but in Ardisia 
Sw. it is also most variable. 
Order LV11I. PIlIMULACEiE. 
The Primrose Family. 
Like Myrsinace^e, but herbaceous and mostly stemless 
with non-coriaceous 1. and capsular dehiscent many-seeded fr. 
