166 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
rolla in a single series. In Symplocos, however, where the fila- 
ments are broad at the base, and the stamens frequently as 
numerous as thirty or forty, they are arranged in three or four 
imbricated series of difiierent heights, and are all agglutinated by 
their base to the corolla for more than half their length : in 
Barberina the stamens do not exceed fifteen or twenty, and they 
are quite free from each other and from the corolla ; but as the 
filaments are there very narrow at the base, they may still be 
normally three- or four-seried, although forced by pressure to 
assume a uniserial position : in Sympleura, however, where the 
number of stamens is sometimes reduced to five, they are of 
course uniserial, as in Styrax; but this does not affect the ge- 
neral rule. This consideration, after all, is of very trivial im- 
portance where other and far more essential points of differential 
structure are manifest. The point in question therefore remains 
valid as a common rule of distinction, especially when connected 
with the following consideration. 
4. My definition, that the Styracea are distinguished by linear 
anthers dorsally attached to broad filaments for nearly their 
whole length, is denied by Dr. Gray, who refers to Halesia as 
showing the contrary. This character is, however, extremely pro- 
minent and constant in Strigilia and Pamphilia, where the free 
portion of the filament is short, and also in Styrax and Cyrta, 
where the filaments are relatively longer. I find also in Halesia 
and Pterostyrax, notwithstanding the greater comparative length 
of the filaments, that the anthers, still of considerable length, are 
linear, the two cells are parallel, separated from each other by a 
distinct interval, dorsally attached by their whole length, and 
each bursting by a longitudinal line in front, as in Styrax and 
Strigilia. On the other hand, in Sijmplocacece, in all cases I 
have seen, the filaments terminate in a slender thread, upon the 
summit of which almost oscillates a small globose anther formed 
of two adnate cells, without the intervention of any apparent 
connective, which cells burst laterally on their edges. This ex- 
treme difference may be seen by comparing the excellent analysis 
of Styrax officinale by M. Decaisne (Spach, Phan. pi. 136), and 
Mr. Bentham’s details of Symplocos laxiflora (Linn. Trans, 
vol. xviii. tab. 18). The figures in Delessert’s ' leones,' v. tab. 42 
and 43, showing the stamens of Pamphilia and Foveolaria, are 
not less instructive on this head. The features I have assigned 
to each family in this respect are therefore well-marked, and 
quite opposed to one another. 
5. I have fully demonstrated, in a preceding page, the very 
different structure of the ovary of the Styracece, as contra- 
distinguished from that of the Symplocacece : Dr. A. Gray denies 
the structure I have assigned to the former in the cases of Pam- 
