We have to regret, that accident prevented us from avail. 
ing ourfelves of Mr. Grevittie’s very kind permiffion to 
examine this. rare vegetable, while in bloom, for the firft time 
in Europe, in his confervatory at Paddington, where it had 
been introduced from the Eaft-Indies by Dr. Roxsurcn. 
For the materials of our generic charaéter, we have relied, 
partly on the defcriptions of Meffrs. Kenic and Roxsurci 
in the above-cited work of the latter, and partly on a. figure 
and diffeétions in the fame. 
Gartner, judging from an ifolated fruit, has been be- 
trayed into more than one error concerning our prefent fubjett. 
Having examined the feed-veffel, he declares that it cannot 
belong to the plant cited as the reprefentation of the parent, 
from the above-quoted work of Rumpntus; but that it mut 
be the offspring of fome vegetable of the natural order of 
Scitaminee ; and proclaims it one of the moft remarkable 
anomalies in the vegetable kingdom in regard to the wh 
capfule, and feed, The error in fynonymy evidently arole 
from his knowledge of the fubje&t being confined to the 
fruit; as the phenomena he defcried in the ftruéture did 
from his falfe view of the parts. He defcribes it to be a cap 
fule confifting of “from 6—g fingle-feeded cells, arranged 
“ one over the other, fubalternately, in two longitudinal rows or 
* piled ranks ;” when in fa it isa pericarp that grows up from 
a germen with three parallel cells, as ufual in this order of 
plants; the contents of more than one or two of which cells 
or ovaria are feldom impregnated, whilft the fterile ones are 
obliterated, the ripening fruit becoming either one or tw0- 
celled accordingly. The imaginary double pile of cells one 
above the other, is no more than the feveral nidi- or cav 
formed by each feed in the pulp of the vertical berried | 
lament, in which it has been imbedded ; this by age has 
converted into a dry fpongy fubftance, and fhrunk into 
appearance of cruitlike tranfverfe partitions intercepting 
each feed. His extraordinary ftyle, faid to be “ long, fili- 
“form, and covered with hairs,” ts in reality a remmant 
of the floral tube broken off by accident about the middle+ 
is “horny, lateral, beaked procefs in each feed, rofrum 
Curculionis emulans,” from which he has named the genus, 
we fufpeét to be merely the umbilical cord, and not very dif 
ferent from that of the feeds of many other berried fruits 
Orchiotdes was perhaps as irrelevant a {pecific name as 
could have been hit upon. Rumputus defcribes the flowef 
of his fpecimen as * Sordide albicans leto rubro intermixto. 
He fays the root is eaten in India when candied. Is Kani¢ 
correé in calling it a biennial plant? G, rs 
