CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
73 
Pennantia. 
The true affinity of this genus, established by Forster in 1773, 
has not hitherto been sufficiently well understood. Jussieu 
placed it among the genera of indeterminable position, hinting 
at the same time its probable relation with Canarium, a genus 
belonging to the Terebinthacea. Bartling considered it should 
be referred to the Euphorbiacea. Sprengel and Meissner held 
it to be an anomalous genus of the Terebinthacece. A. Richard 
(Voy. Astrol. 368) pronounced its station to be quite uncertain. 
Endlicher in his ‘Prodromus^ of Norfolk Island plants, placed 
it in Rhamnacece, a view conffi-med by Lindley in his ‘ Introduc- 
tion to Botany.^ Endlicher again, in his ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ 
arranged it among the doubtful genera of that family. Reisseck 
subsequently gave an elaborate description of its characters, when 
he endeavoured to show that it was closely related to Mauria and 
Rhus in Anacardiacea, in which opinion he was joined by Prof. 
Lindley in his ‘Vegetable Kingdom,’ and also by Endlicher in 
the 3rd Supplement of his ‘ Genera Plantarum.’ Lastly, Dr. 
Planchon (Hook. Icon. 778) indicated its affinity with the Ola- 
cacea. The evidence I am now able to offer will prove satisfac- 
torily that its true position is among the Icacinacece, although it 
offers certain peculiarities deserving our attention. It will be 
seen to accord with that family in all its most essential characters ; 
viz. in its habit, its polygamous or dioecious flowers, its small 
persistent 5 -toothed calyx, its 5 fleshy linear petals with an in- 
flexed apical point and valvate aestivation; its 5 hypogynous 
stamens alternating with these and nearly equal to them in 
length, with filaments induplicated in the bud; its somewhat 
gibbous ovarium, entirely free, which by abortion is unilocular, 
with ovules suspended from near the summit of the cell ; its dru- 
paceous fruit, containing an osseous indehiscent putamen, which 
encloses a single suspended seed, and an embryo with superior 
radicle, enveloped in fleshy albumen. The peculiarities just 
alluded to consist in the retroverted position of its ovule, as 
shown in the development of the fruit, in a manner similar to 
that seen in Euonymus, and which probably wiU be found to 
exist in other genera of the Icacinacem. The summit of the 
putamen is furnished with a kind of dorsal and apical cristate 
protuberance, which is prominent in the typical species, but less 
so in the others, and which is also seen in the putamen of 
Apodytes and Mappia ; but below the extremity of this crest in 
Pennantia, a very distinct foramen is evident, through which the 
strophiole or funicular support of the suspended seed passes, and 
which strophiole is evidently in connexion with the raphe-like 
cord that is seen imbedded in the pulp, proceeding from this 
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