336 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
I\Ir. Benthani, in 1862, established his genus Microclisia 
(Nov. Gen. i. 435) upon an Australian plant very similar in its 
aspect to Cunningham’s species; but he afterwards cancelled 
this (Flor. Austr. i. 59), making his plant not only congeneric, 
but specifically identical with Cunningham’s plant. They are 
certainly very much alike, especially in the venation of the 
leaves; but in one case these are more acuminated. There is, 
however, this difference between the plants: — that in the former 
the flowers have eighteen sepals and six petals ; in the latter, 
Cunningham only mentions the existence of three sepals, without 
any allusion to the presence of petals : the three interior sepals 
m Microclisia are long, acute, and almost lanceolate; mPleogyne 
they are short and triangular. In Microclisia there are only 
three stamens, corresponding with the number of the ovaries ; 
in Pleogijne there are six stamens, according with the number of 
the ovaries. 
It may be urged that Cunningham overlooked fifteen of the 
smaller sepals, and did not notice the presence of the petals, on 
account of their minute size ; but we have no right to assume 
this as a fact, and, upon that assumption, affirm the identity of 
the two genera. We have this consideration in favour of Cun- 
ningham’s statement : if the calyx had consisted of the number 
of sepals found in Microclisia, we ought to see on the summit of 
the pedicel as many cicatrices, in six alternate series, at the 
spots from which they had fallen ; but we find no such indica- 
tions ; the turbinated, thickened apex of the pedicel, forming a 
broad torus, is covered with hairs externally, and on its sharp 
margin we see only interrupted spaces (the cicatrices of the 
three larger sepals, and the spots where the three small bractei- 
form sepals have been fixed) : had there been twelve other sepals 
exterior to these, the points of their attachment ought to be 
visible. Additional evidence is afforded by the circumstance 
that I found in one of the withered flowers examined a triangular 
sepal pilose outside, and another extremely minute and less than 
half its size ; so that I conclude the calyx must really consist 
of six sepals in two alternate series, the outer one of which was 
either not noticed by Cunningham or considered by him to consist 
of minute bracts. Among the hairs of the gynsecium, between 
two of the ovaries, I found a process very like a sterile stamen ; 
it was slender, glabrous, with two separated glands on its apex. 
We may also notice the fact mentioned by Mr. Bentham, that in 
Microclisia he found only three carpels, while in Cunningham’s 
plant we perceive constantly six or more ; he also adds that, in 
his genus, the thick fleshy cotyledons are nearly conferrumi- 
nated, and the radicle is scarcely distinguishable. I did not 
find this to be the case in Pleogyne, where the cotyledons are 
