384 ACCOUNT OF A NEW GENUS OE PLANTS,
111 Oils ])lants the genus belongs, it may, I tliink, without hesitation be referred to Bkotyledones ; yet if the plant is parasitic, and consequently no argument on this subject to be derived from the structure of the root, which is exactly that of the Viue,-^ its exclusion from MonocotyJedones would rest on no other grounds, that I am able to stnte, than the quinary division of the perianthium, which in other respects also bears a considerable resemblance to that of certain dicotyledonous orders, the number of stamina, and the ramification of vessels in the bracteae.
Assuming, however, that Bafflesia hdowg^io Bicoti/Iedoues, 218] and considering the foliaceous scales which cover the un- expanded flower, both from their indefinite niunber and im- bricate insertion as bracteae, and consequently the floral envelope as simple, its comparison with the families of this primary division would be limited to such as are apetalous ; either absolutely as Asarince ; those of a nature interme- diate between the apetalous and polypetalous, in which the segments of the perianthium are generally, though not always, disposed in a double series, as Fassiflorece, Citcur- hiiaccce, and Homalina -, or those which have a simple coloured floral envelope, but are decidedly related to poly- petalous families, as SiercuIiacecB.
With Asarince., the only truly apetalous order to which it seems necessary to compare it, Bafflesia has several points of resemblance, especially in the structure of the central column. In AristoIocJda the antherse, though only six in number, are in like manner sessile, and inserted near the apex of a column formed by the union of stamina and pis- tillum. The mere difi'erence in the number of stamina seems to be of no importance in the present question, there being twelve in Asarum ; and in Tliottea, a genus certainly belonging to this family, though referred by Rottboll to ConiovtcB^" the stamina are not only still more numerous, but are disposed in a double circular series one above the other ; an arrangement which may perhaps be considered
^ Compare the magiiiCed section of the Eoot, tab. 20 (2-3),/. S, with that of the A^ine in Grew's xinat. tab. 1 7.
- Tholtea graudiflora. liottbUl in Nov. Act. Soc. Txcg. Hafn. ii, p. 529, tab. 2.
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