CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
13 
albumen. Their fourth tribe consists of my subdivision Cissam- 
pelida, which they separated from the rest of my Leptoffonece. 
They abolished my tribe Tiliacorea, which offers such distinct 
characters, and united the only Indian genus belonging to it 
with the rest of the Leptogonea : these, together with my Platy- 
gonea, constituted their third tribe, Cocculea — a name especially 
objectionable on account of its old association with Anamirta 
Cocculus (the Cocculm of commerce), and thus likely to lead 
many persons into error : in this group different forms of em- 
bryo are mixed together, and the important distinctions between 
accumbent and incumbent cotyledons are totally disregarded. 
Their fifth tribe is adopted upon my Pachygonem, with little 
alteration. 
Messrs. Bentham and Hooker, in their ‘ Genera Plantarum,^ 
published a few months ago, have followed in the steps of the 
authors of the ‘ Flora Indica,’ but have avoided some of their 
errors, and properly discard the Cosciniem ; they have, however, 
followed the same principle of distribution. They adopt my 
Heterocliniea (under the name of TinosporeaE) as their first tribe, 
and my Pachygonea as their fourth tribe ; they also separate my 
subtribe CissampelidecE from the rest of the Leptogonea as then- 
third tribe ; while for their second tribe, under the objectionable 
name of Cocculete, they confound together my Anomospermea, 
Tiliacorea, the remainder of the Leptogonece, and all the Platy- 
gonea, thus mixing up heterogeneously opposite conditions of 
albumen, and different forms of embryo, and totally disregarding 
the important distinction of accumbent and incumbent coty- 
ledons — characters fully appreciated by them in other families. 
This, no doubt, has been done with a view to concentration ; 
but it cannot be denied that it is effected at the sacrifice of con- 
sistency. It appears to me that, if we profess to adopt a principle 
as a basis of division, it should be carried out strictly. The 
feature of ruminated albumen is too peculiar to be so overlooked ; 
and hence the Anomospermeae and TiliacoretE are deserving of 
special places, and should be held distinct, not only because of 
having quite a different direction of the eondyle, but on account 
of one having accumbent, the other incumbent cotyledons. It 
is for this latter reason that I have ventured to add a new tribe, 
Hypserpece. The marked contrast between the slender thread- 
like embryo of the Leptogonece, as contradistinguished from 
those with foliaceoqs cotyledons, many times the breadth of the 
slender radicle, is too important to be passed over ; and hence 
the necessity for maintaining the Platygonece as a distinct tribe. 
The differences in floral structure are of secondary importance ; 
and for this reason the Menispermece and Cissampelidece have been 
retained by me as subtribes, and conjoined into a single tribe 
{Leptogonece), in which all the genera are alike distinguished for 
