CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
173 
from the rest of the parietes,” seems to favour the idea that 
it is something more than epidermis, especially when analogy 
points to the remarkably thick epigynous gland that ordinarily 
surmounts the ovary in Olacacece, even when it is entirely supe- 
rior. The concurrence of so many points of structure in these 
several families ought to have their due weight in the question 
of their relative affinities. Prof. DeCandolle * *, although he ad- 
mitted the distant relationship of the Styracece with the Meli- 
acece, yet considered that his tribe PamphilitE was more intimately 
allied to the latter family than to the formert. Yet the same 
features that established this identity in his opinion, exist equally 
in Strigilia, though they do not appear to have attracted his 
attention. 
It is difficult to conceive the grounds upon which Prof. Agardh 
regards the StyracecE (separated from Symplocaceoi) as being 
more immediately allied to the Elceocarpea, among TiliaceceX. 
By his novel system, the affinities of different families of plants 
are best demonstrated by the form and mode of development of 
the ovules. As this character is liable to be modified by many 
circumstances, it can never retain the importance there attached 
to it, because if it be employed as a primary mark of distinction, 
it will ofte^j lead to error ; but it is nevertheless of considerable 
value as an accessory feature, which has not hitherto been suffi- 
ciently attended to : if, however, we combine with this its essential 
concomitant, the position and distribution of the placentary por- 
tions of the component carpels of the ovary, the affinity in ques- 
tion ceases to be apparent. In his group of the Elceocarpeee, in 
M'hich he includes the Tricuspidariece of Endlicher, the union of 
the component carpels constituting the ovary is complete, and 
their placentary margins all unite in a solid axis in the centre, 
the ovules being attached in collateral pairs, in each cell, upon 
the middle of this axile column. No similar structure exists in 
Styi'acecE. In the StyracinecE, as I have explained, the numerous 
ovides, generally in three series, are seated on a central abbreviated 
column, which has no direct connexion with the style, with the 
raphe ventral in the erect ovules, superior in the horizontal ones, 
and dorsal in the lower row, as Prof. Agardh admits : but this 
seemingly deviating position of the raphe is merely the effect of 
their resupination on their funicles, produced by mutual pressure 
dui’ing growth ; for if each ovule be separately brought into one 
ovary that I have depicted in Strigilia Icevis ; hut I notice (as generally 
throughout the StyracinecB) that the lower portion of its wall, which encir- 
cles the three-cellular portion of its base, is greatly thinner in substance 
than its unilocular upper portion, where it is comparatively fleshy. 
• * Prodr. viii. 215. t lb- p- 2/0. 
J Theor. Syst. Plant, p. 269. 
