have been given. According to Lamarck[1] it consists of the enlarged ovarium itself, perforated by the seed soon after impregnation; while Mirbel[2] considers it as formed of the scales of the female amentum, immediately surrounding the organ, named by him cupula; and considered as containing the pistillum, but which most other authors have regarded as the pistillum itself. My observations differ from both these accounts, for on examining the female fructification of Taxus before impregnation I find the rudiments of the future berry, consisting at that period of a narrow fleshy ring, surrounding the base only of the cupula of Mirbel, and very similar to the annular hypogynous nectarium of many flowers. If this cupula, therefore, were the pistillum itself, the berry of Taxus would have an origin analogous to that of Balanites,[3] as it has been very lately described by Mirbel; and, on the other hand, if that author's view of the female fructification of Taxus and Coniferæ generally be adopted, it might then to a certain degree be compared with the external cupula of Dacrydium, which will be more particularly noticed hereafter; but from this it would still be very distinct both in its texture and in its not enclosing in the early stage the cupula; on neither supposition, however, does its origin agree with that of the berry of Exocarpus, which in some respects more nearly resembles the fleshy receptacle of Podocarpus.
I have annexed Olax to Santalaceæ,[4] not, however, considering it as absolutely belonging to the same family, but 571] as agreeing with it in some important circumstances; especially in the internal structure of its ovarium, and that of its pericarpium and seed; but as in Olax there appears to be a double floral envelope, as its antheriferous stamina alternate with the segments of the inner envelope, and its ovarium does not cohere with either, there are sufficient grounds for regarding it, with Mirbel, as a distinct family.
