Jong and three short, or frequently all nearly equal. Style 

 longer than the corolla, declined. Stigma capitate, violet 

 coloured. In the male flowers style and stigma defective. 



The genus Nycterium has been established by M. Vente- 

 nat in his Jardin de Malmaison. It is very desirable that 

 other genera, as well defined, should be taken out of Solanum, 

 a family consisting at present, of upwards of two hundred 

 species. These have been lately arranged and described by 

 M. Dunal, a pupil of the celebrated Decandolle ; and had 

 his division of the genus been founded upon such principles of 

 classification as genera can alone be founded upon, his dif- 

 ferent sections might have served the purpose, whether 

 designated by generic names or not; but, if this has been 

 his intention, which however it hardly was, the making a 

 primary division of the species into aculeate and unarmed, 

 was stumbling at the very threshold ; separating to a great 

 distance some that are the most nearly allied. Nor are his 

 subdivisions, taken from the form of the leaves, less exposed 

 to the same failing. 



Native of the Brazils, and with us an inhabitant of the 

 bark-stove, where, if it be kept free from vermin, and allowed 

 plenty of air, it will grow to a fine shrub, producing its beau- 

 tiful violet coloured flowers, throughout the greater part of 

 the year. Introduced by Aylmer Burke Lambert, Esq. by 

 whom it was communicated to us. 



