156 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
The earliest notice of the affinities of Styrax is by Linnaeus 
(1751), in his 'Philosophia Botanica,^ where, in his systematic 
arrangement of plants, he classes Styrax between Citrus and 
Clusia, in his group Hesperides ; but no reason is given for this 
association. 
Jussieu (1789), in his celebrated work, 'Genera Plantarum,' 
p. 156, places Styrax in his heterogeneous order of the Guaia- 
cana, near Halesia, in a different section from Symplocos and its 
allies ; and at that early period he very felicitously pointed out 
its relation to the Meliacea. 
Jussieu afterwards (1799) changed the name of his Guaiacarue, 
at the suggestion of Ventenat, into Ebenacete, still retaining 
in his first section the same genera as before ; but in doing this, 
he was dubious as to the admissibility of Styrax and Halesia, 
and a second time hinted at their more probable affinity towards 
the Meliacece. 
Again, in 1804 (Ann. Mus. v. p. 419), he repeated his doubts 
of the relationship of Styrax and Halesia with the Ebenacece, 
on account of their possessing an embryo with cotyledons shorter 
than the radicle, and once more suggested their affinity with 
Meliacece, showing likewise their close analogy with Strigilia of 
Cavanilles {Foveolaria, R. & P.), which genus he considered to 
belong unquestionably to that family. He also united the se- 
veral genera of his second section of the Ebenacece into one genus 
Sijinplucos, which he held to be the type of a distinct family, 
allied in some respects to Ebenacece, but having a relation towards 
the Myrtacece or the Aurantiacece (the last section of his Hespe- 
ridce), and distinguished from all others of his former class by 
its ovary, at first superior and free, but aftei’wards inferior and 
invested by the persistent calyx, and signalized by its embryo 
w'ith an extremely long filiform radicle enclosed in the axis of the 
fleshy albumen. From this it is evident that this great botanist, 
in that early stage of carpological science, displayed great acumen 
in indicating the true affinities of Styrax-, and although the 
facts then known wei’e too few to warrant any positive determi- 
nation on the subject, he clearly perceived the ordinal distinc- 
tion between the Styracece and Symplocacece, which succeeding 
botanists have been led to confound together. 
The elder Richard (1808) confirmed the views of Jussieu in 
regard to Styrax, and first established the family of the Styracece 
(Analyse du Fruit, p. 48), which the latter had only indicated ; 
but in doing so, he committed a great mistake, and laid the 
foundation of the fallacy which has since prevailed, by associating 
Symplocos with it, into which genus Hopea and its congeners 
were now absorbed. 
Jussieu (in 1817), in his memoir on the Meliacece (Mem. 
