the tube of the perianthium, though existing in various degrees in all the genera above enumerated, is probably a character of only secondary importance in Honialinæ. For an unpublished genus found by Connnerson in Madagascar, which in every other respect agrees uith this family, has ovarium superum. This genus at the same time seems to establish a considerable affinity between Homalinæ and certain genera, either absolutely belonging to Passifloreæ, especially Paropsia of M. du Petit Thouars,[1] or nearly related to them as Erythrospermum, well de- [439 scribed and figured by the same excellent botanist.[2]
The increased uumber of stamina in Homalium, and particularly in the genus from Congo, instead of presenting an objection to this affinity, appears to me to confirm it. It may be observed also that there are two genera referable to Passifloreæ, though they will form a separate section of the order, which have a much greater, and even an indefinite, number of perfect stamina, namely, Smeathmania, an unpublished genus of equinoctial Africa, agreeing in habit, in perianthium, and in fruit, with Paropsia; and Ryania of Vahl,[3] which appears to me to belong to the same family.
In Passifloreæ the stamina, when their number is definite, which is the case in all the genera hitherto considered as belonging to them, are opposite to the outer series of the perianthium; a character which, though of general importance, and here of practical utility in distinguishing them from Homalinæ, is not expressed in any of the numerous figures or descriptions that have been published of the plants of this order.
Passifloreæ and Cucurbitaceæ, though now admitted as distinct families, are still placed together by M. de Jussieu; and he considers the floral envelope in both orders as a perianthium or calyx, whose segments are disposed in a double series.[4]
These views of affinity and structure are in some degree confirmed by Homalinæ, in which both ovarium inferum
