ON THE FRUITING OP WI8TA.BIA. SINENSIS. 329 



known and imperfectly described Oadneya, E. Br., is probably to 

 be referred to it ; but they had been unable to see specimens. 



In recently going through and selecting from Brown's vast 

 Australian herbarium , in accordance with the will of the late 

 J. J. Bennett, to whom it had been bequeathed, the herbarium 

 of Dr. Oudney was discovered, having been accidentally laid away 

 and overlooked. On an examination of the specimens of Oudneya, 

 - it was clear that they were not to be referred to Moricandia ; and 

 on M. Cosson kindly sending me examples of his Henophytoti 

 deserti, its identity with Brown's genus was at once evident. A3 

 Brown's name has the priority by 31 years, it must supersede 



Cosson's more recent one. 



This determination is of some interest. It vindicates, were 

 that necessary, Brown's judgment in proposing a new genus for 

 the plant, though he wrongly referred to it a species already 

 known by an imperfect figure and description ; it corroborates the 

 surmise of the authors of the ' Genera Plantarum ;' and it secures 

 the commemoration of one of the earlier victims of African ex* 

 ploration by fitly connecting his name with the only new genus 

 in the collection which he made. 



Wisteria sinensis in Europe. 



By W. T. Thiselton Di*£r, M 



[Eead March 6, 1879.] 



In the paper by the Rev. Greorge Henslow on the self-fertilization 

 of plants, recently published in the Society's ' Transactions,' there 

 occurs at p. 335 the following footnote : 



x — — 



1 Since this paper was read, one by Mr. Meehan has been 

 printed in the Journal of the Linn. Soc, in which he shows how 

 Wistaria, though it never sets seeds when ' trained,' yet, when 

 grown as a ' tree,' does not expend its energy in forming long 

 branches, and consequently fruits abundantly." 



A statement of this kind, affecting so well-known a plant, is apt, 

 when once put on record, to be copied from book to book un- 

 challenged ; and as I have considerable doubts both as to the 

 accuracy of the fact and of the implied explanation, I venture to 

 offer to the Society the result of some inquiries which I have made 

 u pon the subject for my own information. 



