114 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
which view was adopted by Eudlicher in his ‘ Genera Plantarum/ 
who then added to it his new genus Cinnamodendron. 
Prof. Lindley (1836), in his 'Introduction to Botany’ (p. 76), 
followed the example of Endlicher in adopting the Canellacea, 
and in placing it next to Guttifera-, but subsequently (in 1846) 
he changed his views, removing the former family as a sub- 
order of the Pittosporacece^, and considering the Canellacea as 
intermediate between it and Olacaceae. 
Richardt suggested its affinity with the TernstramiaceiB. 
Choisy (1850), in his last review of the ClusiaceoeX, has some- 
what modified his former view by adopting the suggestion of 
Richard, and in placing this small group as a suborder of the 
Ternstramiacece, an affinity that can be justified only as regards 
Platonia, which genus, though of proximate relationship, cannot 
be referred to that family §. 
In the midst of such conflicting authorities, it appeared to me 
desirable to search for more certain grounds on which to base 
the true affinities of this small group : it is now some time since, 
with this view, I investigated carefully the structure both of the 
flower and seed; and this examination led me to place it in a 
position very different from any yet assigned to it, for it appears 
to me that the Canellaceae must range close to Drimys and its 
congeners, as I shall proceed to show. 
The details of the structure of Canella, as originally given by 
Swartz 1|, are tolerably correct: the flower has three persistent, 
imbricated sepals ; five deciduous fleshy petals imbricated in sesti- 
vation ; its stamens are united into a fleshy, monadelphous tube 
that entirely encloses the pistil, the anthers consisting of 20 
distinct linear cells, which are affixed extrorsely upon it ; the 
ovary is 1 -celled, and furnished with two opposite parietal pla- 
centae, which arise from the base, and upon each of these in the 
middle are seen two reniform ovules attached horizontally right 
and left by a short and broad funicle in the sinus. The fruit, 
like that of Drimys, is baccate and unilocular, containing four 
slightly reniform, oval, rounded seeds, enveloped in a syrupy, 
aromatic mucilage ; their external tunic forms a hard, shining, 
* Veg. Kingd. 442. 
t Flore de Cuba, p. 245. J Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve, xii. 381. 
§ This genus I consider to belong to the MoronobeacecB, a group I j>rG- 
pose to separate from the ClusiatecB, and which will comprise Moronobeu, 
Chrysopia, Platonia, and two new genera, — Perissus (the type of which is 
P. lucidus, from Rio Negro, Spruce, 2159), and Catalissa (founded upon 
C . Blanchetiana, from Bahia, Blanchet, 1671). In a memoir yet unpub- 
lished, I have described all the above genera and their species, giving at 
the same time the characters and affinities of the Order, which 1 consider 
to be intermediate with the Ternstrcemiacea and Hypericacece. 
y Linn. Trans, i. p. 99. tab. 8. 
