CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
213 
loped from the growth of the primine and secundine, we may 
always, with much confidence, hy attending to the unerring 
indications afforded by the raphe, generally deduce the true 
nature and origin of the different coatings of seeds in Phanero- 
gamous plants. 
On Diclidaxthera. 
This genus, established by Prof. Von Martins in 1826, was 
referred by him to Styraceee, on account of its gamopetalous 
corolla (its stamens being adaate to it, and double the number 
of its lobes), its simple style, its 5-celled ovaiy with pendent 
ovules, its drupaceous fruit, often by abortion monospermous, 
and its albuminous seed, enclosing an embryo with a superior 
radicle. 
Prof. Lindley (in 1836), following this indication, in his 
‘ Introduction to Botany,’ placed the genus in Styracece, after 
Halesia. 
Owing to the peculiar structure of its anthers, Endlicher (in 
1839), in his ‘ Genera Plantarum,’ retained it in the same linear 
position, but separated it as a distinct section, following Styracea. 
No further notice w’as taken of it until Prof. A. DeCandolle 
(in 1844), in his monograph of the last-mentioned order (Prodr. 
viii. 245), merely alluded to it when he excluded it from that 
family, on the ground of its free ovary, its anthers fixed in the 
mouth of the tube of the corolla, its pollen striated ti-ansversely, 
and its minute embryo ; but he did not assign it any other 
position. 
Prof. Lindley (in 1846), in his ‘ Vegetable Kingdom,’ arranged 
it, in the Appendix, among those genera whose precise locality 
in the system is not ascertained. 
In 1852 I offered a few observations*, indicating its probable 
affinity with Hamamelidacece ; but a more critical examination of 
the genus has since convinced me that it has a nearer affinity 
elsewhere. 
Prof. Von Martins (in 1856), in his 'Flora Brasiliensis ’ 
(fasc. 17. p. 11. pi. 4), extended the recital of its generic fea- 
tures, describing at full length, and figuring with much detail of 
analysis, the two species he had delineated in his 'Nova Genera 
et Species ’ thirty years previously. My own observations, 
aided by the drawings and analyses made in 1837 upon the 
living plant, differ in several points of structure from those 
details, as I will presently show ; and upon these facts I will 
proceed to discuss the question of the true affinity of the genus. 
* .\nn. Nat. Hist. ser. 2. ix. 1.30; Contrib. to Bot. p. 46. 
