CONTRIBUTION'S TO BOTANY. 
O 
The HamamelidacecB offer several strong points of resemblance, 
more especially in having four linear petals, which, when ex- 
panded, are in like manner spirally revolute ; the anthers some- 
times open by deciduous valves, they have an ovarium with two 
suspended ovules, and they possess also four hj^ogynous scales. 
But the ovarium is bilocular, and is decidedly adnate to the tube 
of the calyx, so that it is two-thirds inferior ; the calycine seg- 
ments are large in proportion ; the aestivation of the corolla is 
torsively imbricate •, the ovules are in most cases several in each 
cell, although only one is generally matured, or when single they 
are suspended from the apex ; there are two distinct styles ; the 
hypogynous scales are not exterior to the stamens, but alternate 
with them, forming one common whoi’l ; the anthers are introrse 
and somewhat 4-celled, and their mode of dehiscence, although 
sometimes valvular, is very different, and finally the leaves are 
furnished with stipules. 
In Bruniaceee we meet with extrorse stamens, but they offer few 
other points of analogy ; the ovarium is there inferior, and they 
have quite a different habit. 
The Alangiacea present some few points of resemblance, in 
the form and aestivation of their corolla, in the union of the an- 
thers into a tube, and in their ovarium with two suspended ovules; 
but the calyx is wholly adnate with the ovarium, the filaments 
are free, the introrse anthers burst by longitudinal slits, and the 
ovarium is distinctly bilocular. 
The Oleacea, especially Chionanthus, Linociera, and Tessa- 
randra, offer some degree of similitude, in the form of the calyx 
and corolla, but their ovarium is bilocular, the ovules are placed 
collaterally in pairs in each cell, the stamens are few and free, 
they want the petaloid scales, and finally they have opposite 
leaves. 
Leonia presents stamens with the filaments united at base, but 
the tube thus formed is adnate upon a gamopetalous corolla, and 
the structure of the anthers is wholly different. 
The same objections may be offered to the Stijracece, although 
they have often extrorse stamens. 
The anomalous genus DicUdanthera has its anthers furnished 
with reflexed valves, which, as in Aptandra, open from the top to 
the bottom ; but they are introrse, and by the adhesion of the 
filaments to the petals, appear sessile in the mouth of a gamo- 
petalous corolla, and it offers otherwise few analogies. 
There are some points of accordance in the Sauvagesiacece, in 
their internal row of petaloid scales, sometimes combined into a 
tube, and in having the stamens opposite to the petals. The 
anthers are extrorse, and even confluent into an incomplete tube 
in lAtxembergia ) there exists also some analogy in their ovarium 
