Page:Miscellaneousbot02brow.djvu/667

 PLANTS JAVANICiE 11ARI0RES. 651

Floribus paulo post anthesin solum visis, et tunc etiamque fructu niaturo perianthio unico tantiim persistenti nee aucto nee indurato. Drupa exsucca, rugosa, magnitudine pisi majoris. Semen unicum maturescens ; albumen car- nosum, album, magnitucline seminis ; Embryo respect u pericarpii inversus; Cotyleclonibus subrotundis, planis, foliaceis ; Radicnla recta, brevissima, supera.

Obs. I. Botanists are not agreed as to the light in iu ay Inch the two floral envelopes of Sarcostigma and lodes are to be viewed. Both Klein, in describing the plant from which Sarcostigma was formed, and Blume, in his character of lodes 3 have termed the outer envelope calyx and the inner corolla ; while Drs. Wight and Arnott, by whom the genus Sarcostigma was established, have considered the outer envelope an involucrum and the inner calyx. In sup- port of this opinion the persistence and even induration of the inner envelope in Sarcostigma would no doubt be adduced ; but they were also, it may be supposed, deter- mined by referring their genus to TIernandiacece, there being in Hemandia an undoubted involucrum, but that involucrum containing several flowers. On the other hand, the alternation of division of the two envelopes, and their close approximation in both these genera, are characters of at least equal importance ; to which may be added the many analogous points of structure between these genera and Cardiopteris, in which it will hardly be disputed that both calyx and corolla are present.

Obs. II. As to the affinities of Sarcostigma and lodes, the former genus was referred by Wight and Arnott to Jlcr- nandiacea, a family proposed by Blume in his ' Bijdragen,' p. 550, and adopted by Endlicher, consisting of Hemandia and Inocarpus, two genera which do not appear to me very nearly related to each other, and from both of which Sar- costigma is readily distinguished by many important cha- racters. In the following year Professor Arnott, in de- scribing Nans/ al un/ of Dr. Buchanan Hamilton, proposed to place it next in affinity to Phgtocrene of Wallich {Gyno-

�� �