Gyr occur pus. \ 
L. COMBRETACECE. 
571 
but which Lindley is no doubt more correct in adding as a suborder to Combretacece. The same 
dehiscence of the anthers is exemplified in Berberidece and Hamamelidece, without being constant 
in either Order. The fruit and seeds are quite those of Combretacece, and there is considerable 
affinity in many other respects between llligera and Combretacece on the one hand and 
Hamamelidece on the other.— Benth. 
1. Cr. Jacquini (after N. J. Jacquin), Boxb. PL Corom. i. 2, t. 1, copied into 
Lam. lllustr. t. 850; Benth. FI. Austr. ii. 505. A tall tree. Leaves deciduous, 
crowded at the ends of the thick branchlets, broadly ovate or orbicular, on young 
trees often 8 to lOin. long and broad and deeply 3-lobed, on older trees usually 
smaller and entire or broadly and shortly lobed, usually more or less acuminate, 
truncate or cordate at the base, glabrous or tomentose underneath or on both 
sides, the petioles varying from 1 to 4in. Peduncles in the upper axils or close 
above the last leaves, rarely exceeding the petioles, bearing each a repeatedly 
branched cyme with densely crowded exceedingly small flowers, forming little 
globular heads before expanding, sometimes entirely males, sometimes with a few 
hermaphrodite or female flowers scattered in the cyme or chiefly in the forks. 
Drupes ovoid, usually about fin. long, the wings erect, oblanceolate, rounded at 
the end, much narrowed below the middle, varying in the Australian specimens 
from under 2in. long and about ^in. broad to 2|in. long and about 5 lines broad. 
— Pers. Syn. i. 143; G. americanus, Jacq.; Meissn. in DC. Prod. xv. 247; 
G. asiaticus, Willd.; Meissn. l.c. 248 ; G. acuminatus, Meissn. l.c.; G. sphenopterus, 
R. Br.; Endl. Iconogr. t. 43; Meissn. l.c.; G. rugosus, R. Br.; Meissn. l.c. 
Hab.: Gilbert Eiver, F. v. Mueller ; Port Denison, E. Fitzalan ? ; Rockhampton northward. 
Also in Columbia and Central America, in tropical Asia, the eastern Archipelago, and islands 
of the Pacific. All the writers who, unwilling to believe that the same species should have so 
wide a geographical range, have distinguished several species of Gyrocarpus, have expressed 
some hesitation in doing so, for the characters assigned all break down when applied to other 
specimens than those actually described. The differences in the indumentum and shape of the 
leaf are often much greater in different specimens from the same locality than between those 
gathered at the greatest distances. None are more striking than in two specimens from the 
Fiji Islands which, according to Seemann’s notes, represent the young and the old trees. In the 
former, the leaves are large, broadly cordate and deeply 3-lobed as figured in Jacq. Ic. Amer. t. 
178, f. 80, and loosely tomentose on both sides ; in the latter they are quite entire, glabrous, 
more acuminate and more acute at the base than in the form characterized as G. acuminatus, 
Meissn. The fruit-wings are usually longest in the American, shortest in the Australian speci- 
mens, but not uniformly so even in the comparatively few specimens preserved in herbaria. 
Glabrous and more or less hairy filaments occur in India as well as in Australia. The tomentum 
of the leaves is even more inconstant than any other character. R. Brown’s specimens have 
been unfortunately mislaid, but from Endlicher’s figure engraved from Bauer’s drawing, and 
from the variety of Australian specimens I have seen, I have no doubt that he was right in the 
suspicion he expressed that his species might not be different from the common one. — Benth. 
Wood very light and soft. — Bailey’s Cat. Ql. Woods No. 165. 
Order LI. MYRTACE JE. 
Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary at the base or up to the insertion of the 
stamens ; limb more or less divided (usually to the base) into 4 or 5, very rarely 
3 or more than 5, lobes or teeth, or reduced to a narrow border, or entirely 
wanting ; lobes usually imbricate or open in the bud. Petals usually as many as 
calyx-lobes, very much imbricate in the bud, the external one sometimes larger 
than the others, but usually all nearly equal when expanded, sometimes all 
concrete and falling off in a single operculum, or rarely entirely wanting. 
Stamens indefinite, usually numerous or rarely few and definite, inserted in one 
or several rows on a disk, either thin and lining the calyx-tube above the ovary 
and forming a thickened ring at its orifice, or thicker and forming a ring close 
round the summit of the ovary ; filaments free or rarely united into a riug or 
tube at the base, or into as many bundles as there are calyx-lobes ; anthers 
