ber. The insertion of stamina, in this family, is ambiguous; but as in a species of Cnestis from Congo, they originate from, or at least firmly cohere with, the pedicellus of the ovaria, they may be considered perhaps in all the [432 genera rather as hypogynous than perigynous. The most important distinguishing characters of Connaraceæ consist in the insertion of the the two collateral ovula of each of its pistilla being near the base; while the radicle of the embryo is situated at the upper or opposite extremity of the seed, which is always solitary. In Connarus there is but one ovarium, and the seed (figured by Gærtner under the name of Omphalobium) is destitute of albumen. Rourea or Robergia has always five ovaria, though in general one only comes to maturity. Its seed, like that of Connarus, is without albumen, and the æstivation of the calyx is imbricate.
Of Cnestis there are several new species in Professor Smith's herbarium. This genus has also five ovaria, all of which frequently ripen; the albumen forms a considerable part of the mass of the seed; and the æstivation of the calyx is valvular. The genera of this group, therefore, differ from each other, in having one or more ovaria; in the existence or absence of albumen; and in the imbricate or valvular æstivation of calyx. Any one of these characters singly is frequently of more than generic importance, though here even when all are taken together, they appear insufficient to separate Cnestis from Connarus.
In considering the place of the Connaraceæ in the system, they appear evidently connected on the one hand with Leguminosæ, from which Connarus can only be distinguished by the relation the parts of its embryo have to the umbilicus of the seed. On the other hand, Cnestis seems to me to approach to Averrhoa, which agrees with it in habit, and in many respects in the structure of its flower and seed; differing from it, however, in its five ovaria being united, in the greater number of ovula in each cell, in the very different texture of its fruit, and in some degree in the situation of the umbilicus of the seed.
But Averrhoa agrees with Oxalis in every important
