is aware of the constancy in the direction of the embryo in this order.[1]
HIPPOCRATICEÆ. M. de Jussieu has lately proposed this as a distinct family,[2] of which there are two plants in the collection. The first is a species of Hippocratea; the second is referable to Salacia.
In Hippocraticeæ, the insertion of the ovula is either [427 towards the base, or is central; the direction of the radicle is always inferior. In these points of structure, which are left undetermined by M. de Jussieu, they differ from Malpighiaceæ, but agree with Celastrinæ, to which, notwithstanding the difference in insertion and number of stamina, and in the want of albumen, they appear to me to have a considerable degree of affinity; especially to Elæodendrum, where the albumen is hardly visible, and to Ptelidium, as suggested by M. du Petit Thouars,[3] in which it is reduced to a thin membrane.
SAPINDACEÆ. Only four plants of this natural family, which is almost entirely equinoctial, occur in the herbarium. Two of these are new species of Sapindus. The third is probably not specifically different from Cardiospermum grandiflorum of the West India Islands. And the fourth is so nearly related to Paullina pinnata, of the opposite coast of America, as to be with difficulty distinguished from it. M. de Jussieu,[4] who probably intends the same plant, when he states P. pinnata to be a native of equinoctial Africa, has also described a second species from Senegal.[5] No other species of this genus has hitherto been found, except in equinoctial America; for Paullinia Japonica of Thunberg, probably belongs even to a different natural order. The species from Congo, however, seems to be a very general plant on this line of coast; having been found by Brass near Cape Coast, and by Park on the banks of the Gambia.
