XIV. 
On the Affinities of the Genus VAViEA, Benth. ; also of BHYTIDANDBA, Gray . 
By ASA GRAY, M. D. 
( Communicated to the Academy , October 10, 1854.) 
VAYiEA, a well-sounding name, formed from Vavao , one of the Friendly Islands, 
where the plant in question was discovered by the late Mr. Hinds, was employed 
Mr. Bentham to designate a genus, of obscure affinity, founded on a single incomplete 
specimen, destitute of fruit A' No opinion as to its relationship was expressed, beyond 
the remark that it is evidently allied to Iccionanthes of J ack, — - itself a genus most im- 
perfectly known, and the family to which it belongs having scarcely even been guessed 
at. Vavcea Amicorum , Benth., the only species known, was likewise gathered by the 
naturalists of the Exploring Expedition in the Pacific under Captain Wilkes, both at 
the Friendly Islands (on Tongatabu) and at the Feejee Islands. In the first volume, 
recently published, of the Botany of this Expedition, f I endeavored to illustrate this 
genus, as far as could be done in the absence of ripe fruit and seeds (the former occur- 
ring on one specimen in a state barely far enough advanced to show that the ovary 
becomes a berry) ; and I ventured to append it to the order Meliaceee , notwithstanding 
the stamens of more than double (usually triple) the petals in number, and the in- 
complete union of their filaments. 
I have now had the opportunity of examining one or two blossoms from additional 
specimens, which clearly belong, I doubt not, to Vavcea Amicorum , although they differ 
# In Hooker’s London Journal of Botany, 2. p. 212. 
t Botany of the United States Exploring Expedition under Captain Wilkes ; Phanerogamia, 1. p. 244, 
tab. 16. 
VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 
45 
