18 



a ' capsula tricocca,' must have presumed on the affinity which he erroneously supposed the genus to have to 

 Dakchmnpia. 



" Burmannus's specimen of Cometes surattensis I have seen in his Herbarium, now in the possession of Baron 

 Delessert. It corresponds tolerably with the figure of Flora Indica, which, notwithstanding some differences, was 

 probably made from it. 



" When engaged in drawing up the catalogue of Mr. Salt's Abyssinian plants, it occurred to me that the genus 

 which I have in that catalogue named Saltia, was at least nearly related to Cometes ; but I had at that time no means 

 of verifying my conjecture. I afterwards, however, requested M. DecandoUe to examine the specimen in M. Delessert's 

 Herbarium, and the result of that examination is given in a note attached to the specimen, written by M. Delessert in 

 1816, in which it is stated, on M. DecandoUe's authority, to be a species of his genus Desmochtsta, or Pupalia of 

 Jussieu. 



" In September of the same year I examined the specimen, and left attached to it the following note, which refers 

 to M. DecandoUe's opinion, as well as to the Abyssinian genus, which I had published : ' Non Desmocheetse sed Saltiae 

 species, vid. Catal. PI. Abyssin. in Itin. D. Salt. Cometis nomen restituendum, R.B.' 



" M. Guillemin, in the Dictionnalre Classique d'Histoire NatureUe, torn. 4, p. 356, states that M. De Jussieu, who 

 examined, or at least saw, the specimen in M. Delessert's Herbarium, recognized it to belong to AmaranthacecB, and 

 that M. DecandoUe regarded it as a species of Desmochceta. M. Guillemin himself, in adopting M. DecandoUe's 

 opinion, proposes to apply to that genus the older name Cometes; and he adds that in a manuscript note in Burmannus's 

 specimen, I have proposed to do the same thing. But from that note, which I have already given verbatim, it 

 appears that my proposing to restore the name Cometes referred to Saltia, and not to Desmochceta, to which it 

 was evident to me Cometes did not belong. 



" In the Linnsean Herbarium the specimen named Cometes, I believe in the writing of the younger Linnaeus, 

 proves to be a plant belonging to Comokulacece, and it is probably a species of Conmlmlus or Ipomcea, 



" Burmannus (in Flora Indica^ has given the specific name of surattensis to his Cometes, and that name Linnteus 

 has adopted in his first Mantissa, In the I2th edition oi Sijsteina Naturae (vol. ii. p. 127), published in the same 

 year but subsequently to the Mantissa, he changed the specific name to alterniflora, no doubt derived from the 

 account of the inflorescence given both by Burmannus and himself. It is, however, not a very apt name for a plant, 

 whose flowers are always in threes, though the common peduncles are generally alternate. I have therefore recurred 

 to the original name. 



" Sir James Smith in a (pencil) note on the specimen in the Linnaean Herbarium, though aware that the specimen 

 is not really Cometes, supposes the specific name last given by Linnaeus to have been suggested by it. Tliis might 

 have been the fact had that name been alternifolia, which, when he wrote the note, I have no doubt he believed it to 

 be ; but the actual name alterniflora could not well be suggested by this plant, which has its flowers in a capitulum " 

 —Brown's MSS. 



For my specimen of this highly interesting plant I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Major Robert Taylor, of 

 the Honourable Company's Bombay Establishment, Political Resident at Bussora, who found it near that town in 1819 



Plate XVII Fig. 1. A leaf with its four stipules. 2. A fascicle of flowers, showing the relative position of the bracts and appen- 

 dices. 3 A flower with one of the calycine leaflets turned down in order to exhibit the stamens and pistil. 4. Stamens 5 A 

 gram of pollen^ 6. Pistil. 7- Ovarium opened, showing the ovulum and its placenta. 8. A fruit-bearing fascicle, showing the 

 enlarged appendices with the unaltered bracts. 9. An utriculus in «V«, three of the calycine leaflets being removed. 10. The same 

 opened. 11. 12. seed. 13. Embryo. 



COMETES ABYSSINICA. (Brown MSS.) Tab. 18. 



FoLiis lineari-lmjceolatis mucronatis, pungentibus ; stipulis liberis ; ramulis pulvereo-pubescentibus scabris • fruc 

 tus mvolucn ramulis pmnatis, patulis.— 5ro^^;^ MSS. s^^cmiuu^, t^tdoris , rruc- 



Saltia abyssinica. Brown apud Salt, in Itin. Abyssin. Append. B p 376 



Habitat in Abyssinia, ubi super rupibus ad Dixon legit Dom. Salt. Herhar Banksian 



sessilia, opposLta vd qualernatim subvcrticillata, patcnlia uncialia ,«J7T ," f™'"'"' ■"''"'•"° I'™^™'' ''""'"••''». 



axUla.., opp^iue, U.e.«, Uneari-subula... ,„„,^ Lpidl dt.;:^^^ tnloltrr TT"" '^"''''- '"'"^ ' 



auiuae, aa msertionem, uti axillae foliorum, munitce tuberculis 



