172 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY, 
longer than the anther-cells, which are distinct and separated 
by an interval, and dorsally attached by their whole length to 
the filament ; the seeds are albuminous, with a terete radicle, — 
characters more in conformity w’ith Styracece, The juice of 
Humirium balsamiferum has the same smell and balsamic pro- 
perties as that of Styrax, from which it is scarcely distinguish- 
able. The affinity of the Styracecs to the Humiriacecs was di- 
stinctly recognized by Prof. Von Martins when he established 
the latter family*, and was afterwards confirmed by the opinion 
of Mr. Benthamf. The character which serves more than any 
other to establish the relationship of the Styrace^ with the three 
families just mentioned, is the imperfect union of the carpels, 
owing to wdiich the ovary has its dissepiments always more or 
less incomplete, and therefore it is unilocular in the summit, so 
that there is never any direct connexion of the placenta with the 
style. Prof. A. DeCandolle fully admitted this affinity w'ith the 
Olacacece, so much so that at one time he proposed to introduce 
the genus Liriosma into the StyraceceX- In my memoir upon 
the latter genus § I pointed out many circumstances in proof of 
this affinity. I showed that, in a manner analogous to that of 
Strombosia, mentioned in the preceding page, the ovary of Li- 
riosma is at first superioi’, but that, by the expansion of the 
nectarial disk that supports it, the grow'th is wholly downwards, so 
that the fruit beeomes completely inferior, as in Halesia, crowned 
by its small unchanged calyx. I noticed also the occurrence of 
an epigyuous gland-like thickening of the ovary, similar to that 
existing in Hyoscyamus\^, which forms a prominent feature in 
Liriosma and Strombosia and some other genera of the Olaca- 
cea, and occurs sometimes in Styrax and generally in Stri- 
gilia. Dr. Asa Gray does not admit the existence of this epi- 
gynous thickening in Styracecs, saying, “ It is only the ordinary 
epidermis of the ovary, with its downy covering, unaffected by- 
the pressure of the base of the corolla and the staminal tube, 
which closely -encircles the lower part, and it readily separates 
from the rest of the parietes, as it does also in S. Benzoin” I will 
not affirm that it is a distinct formation ; but if it be the ordinary 
epidermis, it certainly assumes a very thickened appearance in 
Strigilia, projecting over the ovary like the eaves of a circular 
roof, while the low’er moiety of the wall of the ovary is attenu- 
ated in substance^. The admission that it readily separates 
* Nov. Gen. et Sp. Bras. ii. 142. 
t Kew Journ. Bot. v. 97. 
+ Prodr. viii. 243. 
\ Ann. Nat. Hist. 2nd ser. viii. 103, 163; huj. op. pp. 16, 23. 
II 111. S. Amer. PI. i. 174; ii. App. 9. pi. 79. figs. 8, 9-13. 
*ff In Styrax officinale I do not find the same disk-like summit of the 
