332 
NOTE ON YAViEA AND RHYTIDANDRA. 
In this light we may admire the sagacity of Jussieu,* and of De Candolle, f who so 
long ago indicated a probable affinity between Styracc and the Meliacece ; while the 
younger De Candolle expresses a reasonable doubt whether his own tribe Pamphiliece, 
annexed to Styracacece , may not rather belong to the former order. $ The seed and 
embryo of Styracc very well accord with those of most Meliecc ; so do those of Foveolaria 
as far as known ; those of Pamphilia have not been investigated. The valvular, the 
convolute-imbricative, and the quincuncial aestivation of the corolla, no less than the 
union or the want of union between the base of the corolla and of the androecium, 
which occur in different Meliaceous genera, are severally represented in different 
species of Styracc. § The stellular pubescence or scurf of Styracc is of no particular 
calyx and the corolla hypogynous : but the specimens communicated from the Leyden herbarium plainly ex- 
hibit the calyx adnate to the base of the ovary, the corolla, as in other cases, inserted at the line of junction. 
In S. Benzoin , however, both the calyx and the corolla are completely free and hypogynous ; but this char- 
acter does not hold in the few South American species I possess, which have a similar valvate corolla, 
namely, S. Camporum, S. Gardnerianum, S. tomentosum , and S. ovatum ; although it must in some others, 
since a species under the name of S. leiophylla is so figured in Lindley’s Vegetable Kingdom, ed. 3, p. 593 b, 
from a sketch by Mr. Miers, who, in the accompanying letter-press, inadvertently assigns an “ ovary superior, 
wholly free from the calyx,” as a character of the order Styracece. 
* “ An genus potius polypetalum indeque Meliis affine ? ” — Gen. PI. p. 156. 
f “ An Styrax , Quivisise et Turrasa habitu similis, hue revoeanda.” — Prodr. 1. p. 619. 
| Prodr. 8. p. 270. — Mr. Bentham, also, in Trans. Linn. Soc. 18. p. 231, indicates the alliance of Sty- 
racece as an order, in the first instance with Ebenacece and Humiriacece , and in the next place with 
Meliacece. 
§ M. Alph. De Candolle describes the aestivation of the corolla of Styrax , from S. officinale , as “ parum 
constante, initio sinistrorsum convoluta, demum subvalvari.” I find it in that species, and all the North 
American ones except S. Americanum , with the petals pretty strongly overlapping in the bud ; very rarely, 
however, in an unbroken convolute series, but for the most part convolute-imbricate, — one petal being 
wholly exterior while the adjacent one is wholly interior, — just as the aestivation of S. Japonicum is cor- 
rectly figured by Zuccarini (in FI. Japon. 1. t. 23, f. 1) : and in some instances this varies to nearly the 
regular quincuncial imbrication. But in Styrax Americanum the aestivation is valvular, with one or two of 
the conjoined margins more or less introflexed, often unequally so ; while in S. Benzoin , as also in all of 
the few South American species I have examined, it is more strictly valvular. Mr. Miers must have contem- 
plated these species only (overlooking Pterostyrax and Halesia likewise) in attributing a valvate aestivation 
to the corolla of the whole order Styracece , as he limits the group (in Lindley’s Vegetable Kingdom, 1. c.). 
Moreover, although the androecium is sometimes unconnected with the corolla, as in Styrax Benzoin , 
already mentioned, yet it is far from being “ generally free from the petals ” throughout the genus. 
A few other discrepances in the characters of Styrax , of more or less importance, may be noticed in 
passing. Endlicher (I cannot at this moment ascertain whether the observation originated with him) gives 
the character, “ ovula inferiora horizontalia vel adscendentia, superiora seepius pendula ” ; and this 
