34 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
enumerated, that this group must form a distinct family (the 
Icacinacea) , and it will consist of the genera Icacina, Mappia 
(Juss.), Apodytes, Rhaphiostyles, Stemonurus (identical with 
Gomphandra), Leretia, Phlebocalijmna (Griff.), Sarcostigma, Po- 
raqueiba, Pennantia, Ptycopetalum, Pogopetalum, and Desmo- 
stachys. 
I am aware of the objections that will be raised by some 
botanists, who are averse to multiplying the present number of 
orders, but it appears to me most important to the advancement 
of science, to detect in the various natural groups of plants, a 
few decisive characters, by which they can be readily distin- 
guished, and this should be accomplished, even at the risk of 
increasing the number of families : this indeed is a far less evil 
than the opposite extreme, where, by redueing too much the 
divisions of the system, the most opposite characters often be- 
come blended in one group, and we thus lose sight of every use- 
ful and well-defined line of demarcation. This inconvenience 
was pointed out on a former occasion (Illustr. South Amer. 
Plants, vol. i. p. 167), when I proposed the family of the Atro- 
pacea, but I then suggested, that if this were felt to be an evil, 
it might be counterbalanced, by classing in one immense family 
the Scrophulariacea, Solanacece, Atropacea, &c., which all partake 
of many similar general characters. In like manner the Celas- 
tracea, Aquifoliacece, Icacinacece, and perhaps some others, might 
be considered as suborders, but I am not yet prepared to define 
the exact limits of such a group. The same observations wiU 
equally apply to what I have said farther on, relative to the 
Viscacea. 
We have now arrived at that point in this investigation, when 
we can better understand the exact relation existing between the 
Olacacea and the Santalacea, to whieh I have already alluded. 
The details given of the structure of Cathedra and Liriosma en- 
able us to comprehend more fully the true nature of the floral 
parts seen in Santalacece. In the Olacacea we have observed 
that the ovariurn is always superior, and quite unconnected with 
the real calyx, and that the cupshaped disk, which supports on 
its margin the corolla and the stamens, is sometimes, though 
not always, adnate with the ovarium, growing with it in such 
case, and producing a pseudo-inferior fruit, but which, in truth, 
never ceases to be superior. This we perceive in Myoschilos, a 
genus placed hitherto in Santalacece, where the hypogynous disk 
is adnate with the ovarium, and quite free from its triphyllous 
calyx, the stamens and petals being inserted on the margin of a 
free portion of the disk ; thus it agrees with Schopfia in all es- 
sential points of structure, except that its calyx consists of three 
distinct sepals, instead of being an urceolate 5-toothed tube. In 
