ing ‘ Biographical Sketch’ of his character and pursuits, 
has preserved some account of the plants which compose 
this Genus, written by the late Professor three or four days 
before his death, and accompanied by many particulars 
relative to Mr. Purso and Mr. Norratt, through whose 
means it has come to the knowledge of European Botanists ; 
all which evince a love of Science, which the most painful 
bodily sufferings could not repress.” 
The Genus was founded on the Barron1a ornata, Pursu 
and Nurratt (B: decapetala, Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1487,) and 
it truly deserved the name on account of its very large white 
and handsome blossoms, each of ten petals, an inhabitant of 
the Missouri. To this Nurratn added, from the same 
country, B. nuda, aspecies from the same locality, and with 
a similar habit, but with smaller flowers. Mr. Dovetas in 
his first expedition to North-west America found three new 
species on the Columbia, which I had the satisfaction of 
publishing in the Flora Bor. Americana, B. levicaulis, (with 
a figure, t. 69,) B. parviflora, and B. albicaulis :—and in his 
second visit to those regions, he had the singular good for- 
tune to discover this, the most showy of the whole, having 
golden, not white (as the rest of the species) flowers, near 
Monteréy, in California, and he sent home seeds in 1834. 
The Horticultural Society has liberally distributed the 
seeds, which, proving perfectly hardy, the plant is now 
found in gardens very remote from the metropolis, even in 
_ the Highlands of Argyleshire. Its flowers continued with 
us in succession and in great beauty from J uly till October. 
This is perhaps the only species of Bartonsa that has ever 
flowered in Britain, (Dr. Sims’ B. decapetala having been 
drawn from a dried specimen,) and it is probably a mis- 
understanding on the part of Pursn, that the flowers open 
“only during the night ;” and this has-been noticed as a 
character of the Genus. Nurran says the blossoms expand 
towards sunset. This is certain, that those species disco- 
vered by Dovexas, have their flowers expanded only during 
the hot sunshine. 
Descr. Root annual. Stem two to three feet high, branched and 
straggling, succulent, scabrous. Leaves lanceolate, pinnatifid, the seg- 
ments entire or coarsely serrated; smaller ones, or bracteas, immediately 
surround the calyx, but they do not so completely conceal them as in B. 
ornata. Peduncles axillary, each bearing two or three flowers, of which 
only one expands at a time. Calyz of five lanceolate segments, much 
shorter than the petals, Corolla of five large, bright yellow, obcordate 
petals, red at the base. Stamens numerous, the outer ones much the 
longest. -Anthers twisted after the pollen is discharged. Germen in- 
ferior, furrowed. Style filiform. aif 
_ ~ Fig. 1. Calyx and Pistil. ‘2, Portion of a Stamen with ect Anther. 3. Outer, and a 
_ 4, inner Stamen, with the Anthers twisted in names’. ey ‘ 
