240 
the same as Bolivaria which is a genuine Jasminaceous plant. The first 
thing that strikes one in looking at Columellia oblonga, is its resemblance to 
Onagracese, from which, however, the proportions of the flower, the monope- 
talous corolla, &c. clearly divide it. The next point is its stamens ; these cu- 
rious bodies, rudely represented in the Flora Peruviana, are apparently com- 
posed each of three stamens firmly consolidated ; for each anther has six cells 
arranged in 3 pairs upon a three-lobed fleshy connective, and turned towards 
the coroUa. Now this indicates an irregularity of stmctm'e of a most unusual 
kind, and to which I find no parallel ; in order to reduce such a structure to 
regularity, we must either suppose that 3 more such triple stamens are abor- 
tive, and that consequently the typical number of parts in the androeceum is 
twenty-five, or we must imagine that the typical number is 10, and that each 
of the stamens actually developed is composed of two stamens opposite the seg- 
ments of the corolla and one alternate with them ; in that case three of the 
stamens alternating with the lobes of the corolla, and two of those opposite 
the lobes will have to be supposed undeveloped. Tliis would give us a penta- 
merous monopetalous flower, with twice as many stamens as parts of the co- 
rolla. Among monopetalous orders with an inferior ovaiy we have no such 
structure ; among the regular dicarpous orders with a superior ovary we have 
only Potaliacese with a similar organization, but the plants which constitute 
that order are so very different in habit that it is not probable that it is they 
with which Columelliacese are to be considered allied. Perhaps Don’s idea of 
a connection between Columellia and Halesia may have some foundation : but 
there is as yet too little evidence to enable Botanists to form any decided opi- 
nion upon the subject. 
Geography. Mexican and Peruvian plants. 
Properties. Unknowm. 
GENUS. 
Columellia, R. et P. 
Uluxia, Juss. 
Order CLXXXIII. STYLIDIACE^. 
Stylide^, R. Brown Prodr. 565. (1810). 
Essential Character. — Calyx superior, with from 2 to 6 divisions, bilabiate or regu- 
lar, persistent. Corolla monopetalous, falling off late ; its limb irregular, rarely regulai-, 
with from 5 to 6 divisions, imbricated in aestivation. Stamens 2 ; filaments connate with 
the style into a longitudinal column ; anthers twin, sometimes simple, lying over the 
stigma; pollen globose, simple, sometimes angular. Ovary 2-celled, many-seeded, some- 
times ] -celled, in consequence of the contraction of the dissepiment, often surmounted 
with a single gland in front, or two opposite ones : style 1 ; stigma entire or bifid. Capsule 
with 2 valves and 2 cells, the dissepiment between which being sometimes either contracted 
or separable from the indexed margins of the valves, the capsule becomes as it were 1 -celled. 
Seeds small, erect, sometimes stalked, attached to the axis of the dissepiment ; embryo 
minute, enclosed within a fleshy somewhat oily albumen. — Herbaceous plants or under* 
shrubs, without milk, having a stem or scape, their hair, when they have any, simple, acute, 
or headed with a gland. Leaves scattered, sometimes whorled, entire, their margins 
naked or ciliated, the radical ones clustered in the species with scapes. Flowers in spikes, 
racemes, or corymbs, or solitary ; terminal, rarely axillary, the pedicels usually with three 
bracts. 
Affinities. Nearly allied both to Campanulacese and Goodeniaceae, from 
both which they are distinguished by their gynandrous stamens, and from the 
latter by the want of an indusium to the stigma. The structure of the sexual 
