514 Mr. Dow's Description 
by all his acquaintance. In the natural system Cowania must 
be placed near to Dryas, with which it agrees in the unifor- 
mity of the divisions of the calyx, being destitute of the ac- 
cessory segments found in Sieversia, Geum, Potentilla, &c., and 
likewise in having coriaceous, reticulated leaves, naked and 
shining above, woolly underneath, and with their margins re- 
volute. It is to be observed, however, that in Dryas the calyx 
is 8- or 10-cleft, and scarcely tubular, the leaves undivided, 
and the flowers white, on long footstalks; but the most impor- 
tant character of Cowania, by ahisi it is at once distinguished 
from Dryas and all its co-ordinates, is to be found in the re- 
duced number of its pistils, which are from five to eleven 
—a very small number, when compared with that of other 
genera of this family. 'The hollow pear-shaped calyx of this 
plant points out decidedly the true nature of the fruit in Rosa, 
which is nothing more than the tube of the calyx formed into a 
kind of receptacle, as has been justly remarked by our learned 
President and Mr. Woods. ‘There cannot, I think, be a sha- 
dow of doubt as to the propriety of uniting the Potentille 
of Jussieu, the Dryadeæ of M. Decandolle, with Rosa in the 
same natural family. I shall now proceed to give descrip- 
tions of these two plants, 
COWANIA. 
Cuar Essent. Calyx 5-fidus. Petala 5. Ovaria 5—11: 
ovulo erecto. Styli terminales, continui. Achenia stylis 
plumosis persistentibus aristata. Embryo erectus. 
Descr. Flores polygami. Calyx obturbinatus basi attenuata 
tubulosus, intüs striis numerosis parallelis exaratus, extüs 
glandulis tectus, limbo 5-fidus: lobis subaequalibus subro- 
tundo-ovalibus, patulis, retusis cum mucronulo ; accessoriis 
nullis. 
