746 Hems ley.— On the Genus Cory nocarpus, Forst ., 
cultivated specimens in the ‘ Botanical Magazine/ t. 4379, 
where the stamens are represented and described as alternate 
with the petals ; and the plant is doubtingly referred to the 
Myrsinaceae. In 1852 Sir Joseph Hooker described it in 
greater detail (Flora Novae Zelandiae, i, p. 48) and discussed 
its affinities, with the result that he placed it in the Ana- 
cardiaceae, ‘ though unable to indicate direct affinity with any 
plant of that order, except perhaps with Mangiferal He, „ 
also, describes the stamens as alternating with the petals. 
This was followed by Bentham and Hooker in 18 62 (Genera 
Plantarum, i, p. 425), where it is placed in the Anacardiaceae, 
without any remark on its anomalous structure, except that 
under ‘Formae Abnormes’ it runs: ‘ Stamina cum squamulis 
alternantia in Corynocarpo.’ Sir Joseph Hooker, in 1864, 
(Handbook of the New Zealand Flora, p. 46) still held the 
same view of its affinities. 
In 1889 Kirks ‘Forest Flora of New Zealand 5 appeared, 
and it contains (p. 17 1, t. 88) a figure and description of 
Corynocarpus laevigata , but the figure is crude and the 
description faulty, and one can only suppose they were made 
from imperfect, dried specimens. The enlarged parts of the 
flower give no idea of structure, and the ripe fruit, unusually 
small, is represented as erect. 
In 1897 Engler (Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien, Nach- 
trage, p. 215) redescribed and figured C. laevigata as the type 
of a new order (Corynocarpaceae), partly from fresh material 
cultivated in the Berlin Botanic Garden. His description 
does not agree in some particulars with what I have observed, 
but I have no fresh material before me to test certain characters, 
which may disappear or become very obscure in the dried 
state. For example, he describes the sepals and petals as 
3-5, ciliate, the former deciduous, and the disk as rather 
broadly annular with five short lobes. Among the numerous 
flowers I have examined, none was trimerous nor even tetra- 
merous, and the sepals never free and deciduous. 
Dr. Engler is the first and only writer, so far as my 
researches go, who has observed and described two styles to 
