It forms a new species of the very singular genus Dau- 
benya, the original of which was published in this work 
some years ago (Daubenya aurea, vol. xxi. fol. 1813) ; but 
it throws no new light upon the affinities of the genus, which 
must still be supposed to be with Massonia. 
.. The irregularity observable in the perianth of Daubenya 
aurea, is here carried still further, existing to as great an 
extent as in the most oblique forms of Babiana among 
Tridacee ; and it adds one to the many already known facts 
leading to the conclusion that irregularity in the floral enve- 
lopes cannot alone be taken as a sound mark of ordinal dis- 
tinction. Certainly Liliaceze has been hitherto regarded as 
one of the most regular-flowered of orders, and yet here is 
a case in which irregularity in the flower is carried almost 
as far as the suppression of a part of the floral segments. 
It will doubtless be found, whenever the limitation of natural 
orders is reduced to any principles, and ceases to be arbi- 
trary, that every large order contains irregular and regular 
flowered genera, and that the greatest value that can be 
assigned to such a circumstance is that of characterizing 
some division of the order: 
Among Exogens Ranunculaceae, Papaveracee, Violacee, 
Geranacee, Brassicacee, Apiacee, Asteracee, Campanulacee, 
Boraginacee, Caprifoliacee, Malpighiacee, and a great many 
others have both regular and irregular flowers; Scrophu- 
lariacee with irregular flowers therefore should not be divided 
from Solanacee, any more than among Amaryllidacee Hip- 
peastrum from Vallota. 
In the accompanying figure 1. represents a flower, mag- 
nified; 2. an ovary, style, and stigma; 3. a transverse 
section of the ovary. 
