•8 
WRIGHT : THE GENUS DIOSPYROS 
by Parmentier contains a general discussion of the anatomical 
and morphological characters of the genera, and a detailed 
description of the anatomy of the leaves of seventy species 
of Diospyros and of other fifty species belonging to the 
remaining genera. Several complicated and ingenious tables 
are given, intended to show the relationships of the species 
of each genus to one another, the conclusions being based on 
the work of Hiern and the anatomists previously mentioned. 
Analytical tables for the genera and species are constructed 
on the sex characters of the flowers as determined by Hiern, 
together with the pericyclic or sub-epidermal origin of the 
phellogen in the stem. Parmentier believes that the genus 
Diospyros is characterized by a sub-epidermal phellogen in 
the stem, and on this ground, since D. oppositifolia, Thw ,, 
and D. suberifolia, Dene ., have a pericyclic phellogen, he 
transfers them to the genus Euclea. 
Such a position is untenable, and it is unwise to lay down 
such rigid classifications from observations on only 40 per 
cent, of the species of Diospyros ; furthermore, the sex of 
one of the species, viz., D. oppositifolia, Thw., was not then 
known, and though it was regarded as being dioecious, I 
have since been able to prove that it is monoecious only. 
The classification put forward is further weakened by the 
discoveries regarding the true nature of the sex of Diospyros, 
and the behaviour of the phellogen in the pericycle and 
cortex of the primary axis. 
The detailed accounts of the parts of the leaf and the 
grouping of species of Diospyros according to the subcentric 
or bifacial mesophyll, the immersion or projection of the 
median and lateral traces, and similar leading characters are 
particularly instructive, though we cannot but regard the 
tables of affinity, such as that on pages 56-57, as being 
premature, seeing that our knowledge of the whole order was 
then, and still is, meagre and unreliable. 
We have seen that from 1873 the main work has been on 
the anatomy of the stem and leaves and the origin layer of 
