§ 3. KIBESSEE. Macroplacis, Bl. Ewyckia, Bl. ? Pternandra, Jack. Rectomitra, Bl. Kibessia, DC. § 4. MEMECYLEÆ. § 5. MOURIRIEÆ. MELASTOMACEÆ.-Myrtacea. Lythracea. GENUS NOT PLACED BY NAUDIN. Chiloporus, Nand, formerly referred by him to Miconica, ORDER CCLXXXII. MYRTACE.E.-MYRTLEBLOOMS. Myrti, Juss. Gen. 323. (1789).-Myrtex, Juss. Dict. Sc. Nat. 34. 94. (1825- Myrtoideæ, Vent. Tab. (1799-Myrtineæ, DC. Theorie, Flem. (1819).-Myrtacee, R. Brown in Flinders, p. 14. (1814 : DC. Dict. Class v. 11; Prodr. 3. 2017; Endl. Gen. cclxix.; Schauer in Linnea, xvii. 235; Wight Illustr. 2.6.-Granater, Don, in Ed. Phil. Journ. p. 134. 1826 ; DC. Prodr. 3. 3; Von Martius H. Reg. Monac. (1829); Endl. Gen. p. 1223; Wight Ilustr. 2. 2. DIAGNOSIS.-Myrtal Ecogens, with a plurilocular ovary, polypetalous or apetalous flowers, an imbricated calyx, 00 stamens, oblong anthers, and usually dotted leaves. Trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire, usually with transparent dots and a vein running parallel with their margin. Inflorescence variable, usually axillary. 3 Fig. CCCCXC. Flowers red, white, occasionally yellow, never blue. Calyx adherent, valvate, 4- or 5cleft, sometimes falling off like a cap, in consequence of the cohesion of the apex Petals equal in number to the segments of the calyx, with a quincuncial æstivation; rarely none. Stamens either twice as many as the petals, or 00, rarely equal to them in number; filaments either all distinct or connected in several parcels, curved inwards before flowering; anthers ovate, 2-celled, small, bursting lengthwise. Ovary inferior, 1-2-4-5- or 6-celled; style simple, derived immediately from the placenta; ovules usually pendulous, or erect and anatropal; occasionally peltate and amphitropal, always inserted into a central or axile placenta. Fruit either dry or fleshy, dehiscent or indehiscent. Seeds usually indefinite, variable in form; embryo without albumen, straight or curved, with its cotyledons and radicle distinguishable or blended into a solid mass. A species of Sonneratia is apetalous. Some dotted leaves are alternate. One of the most natural among the tribes of plants, and the most easily recognised. Opposite exstipulate dotted entire leaves with a marginal vein, are a certain indication of it; and even where the leaves are alternate the intramarginal vein is usually discoverable. This alternation is in some species uniform, but in other instances it is accidental, as in Myrtus communis, which usually has opposite leaves, though, if the plant is killed to the ground by frost they are mostly alternate on the shoots that spring up again. It is closely allied to Roseworts, Lythrads, Onagrads, Myrobalans, and Melastomads, but cannot well be confounded either with them or any other Order. It offers a singular instance of the facility with which the calyx and corolla can take upon themselves the same functions and transformations. In Eucalyptus the sepals are consolidated into a cup-like lid, called the operculum, and in Eudesmia, a nearly Fig. CCCCXC.- Eugenia tuberculata. 1. a flower; 2. the same divided vertically; 3. a stamen; 4. a ripe fruit; 5. a leaf with the dots upon it. MYRTALES.] MYRTACEAE. related genus, the caiyx remains in its normal state, while the petals are consolidated into an operculum. Babingtonia offers the curious structure of a style and stigma, derived immediately and wholly from the placenta, a circumstance not without a parallel in this Order; and Bæckia micrantha, DC., has parietal placenta ! 1 Fig. CCCCXCI. Punica has been considered the type of a particular Order (Granater) by Don, in which he is supported by the high authority of De Candolle, Von Martius, and Wight. The fruit of Punica Granatum, the Pomegranate, is described by Gartner and De Candolle as being divided into two unequal divisions by a horizontal diaphragm, the upper half of which to 9 cells, and the lower of consists of from three; the cells of both being separated by membranous dissepiments; the placenta of the upper half proceeding from the back to the centre, and of the lower irregularly from their bottom; and by Don as a fleshy receptacle formed by the tube of the calyx into a unilocular berry, filled with a spongy placenta, which is hollowed out into a number of irregular cells. In fact, if a Pomegranate is examined, it will be found to agree more or less perfectly with both these descriptions. But it is clear that a fruit as thus described is at variance with the ordinary laws upon which compound fruits are formed. A section of the ovary of the Pomegranate in various directions, if made about the time of the expansion of the flowers before impregnation takes place, shows that it is in fact composed of two rows of carpels, of which three or four surround the axis, and are placed in the bottom of the tube of the calyx, and a number, varying from five to ten, surround these, and adhere to the upper part of the tube of the calyx. The placentae of these carpels contract an irregular adhesion with the back and front of their cells, and thus give to the position ultimately acquired by the seeds that anomalous appearance which it assumes in the ripe fruit. If this view of the structure of the Pomegranate be correct, its peculiarity consists in this, that, in an Order the carpels of which occupy but a single row around the axis, it possesses carpels in two rows, the one placed above Fig. CCCCXCII. Fig. CCCCXCI.-1. Punica Granatum; 2. perpendicular section of the ovary; 3. cross section of it near the base: 4. near the base. Fig. CCCCXCII.-Monstrous Apple, mentioned in the next page. the other, in consequence of the contraction of the tube of the calyx, from which they arise. Now, there are many instances of a similar anomaly among genera of the same Order, and they exist even among species of the same genus. Examples of the latter are, Nicotiana multivalvis and Nolana paradoxa, and of the former Malope among Malvacea, polycarpous Crowfoots as compared with Nigella, and polycarpous Roseworts as compared with Spiræa. In Prunus I have seen a monstrous flower producing a number of carpels around the central one, and also, in consequence of the situation, upon the calyx above it; and finally, in the Revue Encyclopédique (43. 762), a permanent variety of the Apple is described, which is exactly to Appleworts what Punica is to Myrtleblooms. This plant has regularly 14 styles and 14 cells, arranged in two horizontal parallel planes, namely, 5 in the middle, and 9 on the outside, smaller and nearer the top; a circumstance which is evidently to be explained by the presence of an outer series of carpels. Dr. Wight proposes a modification of these views (Illustrations of Indian Botany, ii. 5), but I do not see in what respect his opinion materially differs from mine. The anomaly of the structure of the fruit of Punica being thus explained, nothing remains to distinguish it from Myrtleblooms but its leaves without a marginal vein, its convolute cotyledons, and pulpy seeds. There are, however, distinct traces of dots in the leaves, and the union of the venae arcuata, which gives the appearance of a marginal vein to Myrtleblooms, takes place, although less regularly, in Punica; the convolute cotyledons of Punica are only in Myrtleblooms what those of Chamameles are in Appleworts, a curious but unimportant exception to the general structure; and the solitary character of the pulpy coat of the seeds will hardly be deemed by itself sufficient to characterise Granateæ. The place of Punica in the Order will be probably near Sonneratia. There is no instance of a blue flower in this Order. The fruit varies from succulent to dry in different genera, and in some cases is nearly superior. According to Auguste de St. Hilaire, a passage is formed from Myrtleblooms to Onagrads through the genus Felicianea. Natives of hot countries both within and without the tropics; great numbers are found in South America and the East Indies, not many in Africa, and a considerable proportion of the Order in New Holland and the South Sea Islands; but the genera of those countries are mostly peculiar to them. Myrtus communis, the most northern species of the Order, is a native of (Persia, but has become naturalised in) the south of Europe. Metrosideros lucida, a beautiful tree of this Order, occurs as far to the south as Lord Auckland's Islands, in lat. 50 S.-J. Hooker. De Candolle remarks, that although they all, without exception, have a woody texture, yet that they vary prodigiously in stature, from the little Myrtus nummularia which spreads over the soil in the Falkland Islands, as Thyme does in Europe, to the immense Gum-trees (Eucalypti) of New Holland, which are among the most gigantic trees of Australasia. There are all sorts of intermediate sizes, but the common Myrtle-bush gives a tolerably good idea of the appearance of the majority. Mr. Backhouse speaks of some of the Gum-trees as rising to about 200 feet in height, with straight trunks clear of branches for from 100 to 150 feet, and resembling an assemblage of elegant columns, so irregularly placed as to intercept the view at the distance of a few hundred yards. These are elegantly crowned with branching tops of light willow-like foliage. Some of what are called Stringy bark Gum-trees, "rise nearly as high as the Monument without branching!" The Aki, a New Zealand plant of this Order, the Metrosideros buxifolia, of Allan Cunningham, is described by that Botanist as being a rambling shrub, adhering to trees, and by its lateral roots climbing to the summit of the loftiest timber in the forests of Wangaroa, Bay of Islands, &c. The pellucid dotting of the leaves and other parts indicates the presence of a fragrant aromatic or pungent volatile oil, which gives the principal quality to the produce of the Order. To this are due the grateful perfume of the Guava fruit, the powerful aroma of the flower-buds of Caryophyllus aromaticus, called by the English Cloves, and the balsamic odour of those eastern fruits, the Jamrosade and the Rose Apple. Along with this is frequently mixed an astringent principle, which sometimes predominates, to the suppression of any other property. The Guavas are pulpy fruits inhabiting the western world, whence they have been carried to the eastern; the principal are Psidium pyriferum and pomiferum, the latter of which is much more acid than the other. They make with sugar a cooling and rather astringent conserve. The berries of other species of Psidium, which grow plentifully on the campos of S. Paulo, and are distinguished by the name of Guabinoba, are used in a similar manner. The young bark and leaves are employed as astringents, and the latter for medicated baths, which are very customary in Brazil; other species, especially P. Cattleyanum, also bear a fruit of excellent quality. Eugenia cauliflora, the Jabuticaba or Jaboticaburas, is one of the most agreeable fruits in Brazil, and the taste will be improved by further culture. Very good |