244 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
plished, it may not be necessary to beg the reader who has 
an Zpomea to determine not only “ut patienter inter plures 
sectiones investigationes suas dirigat," but, when he has 
laboured through the diagnoses of 282 species, “sin plantam 
suam inter Jpomeas reperiat, quærat inter Argyreias, (35 spe- 
cies), quaerat inter Jacquemontias (18 more) forsan felicior 
erit. The author might have added,—if luck does not yet 
assist him, he may still have a chance among a hundred other 
species, distributed into a dozen so-called genera. 
A few details taken from the species which we have had 
occasion to examine, will we fear, bear us out in these 
statements, which we confess, we should much rejoice to see 
refuted. 
With regard to the general division; Cuscuta, no 
doubt, forms a distinct tribe, and the deeply-lobed ovary of 
Dichondra and Falkia, analogous to that of Labiate, is also a 
sufficient distinction to justify their separation as a tribe, 
though so very small a one. There exists also a considerable 
difference between the berry of 4rgyreia and the capsule of 
Ipomea, but we doubt much if the consistence of the fruit can 
distinctly—and certainly it cannot naturally—separate the 
two first tribes of Argyreiee and Convolvulee. Species be- 
longing to the two tribes are often so similar that they can 
scarcely be otherwise discriminated from each other; and abso- 
lutely as the character is given of Argyreiee, “ Pericarpium 
indehiscens," how comes it to include Maripa spectabilis, 
* fructu 4-valvi;" and what idea are we to form to ourselves 
of the “indehiscent baccate woody capsule” of Humbertia? 
The fact is, several of these plants have capsules with fleshy 
valves, which are more or less separable at their maturity, 
according to their species, and probably also according to atmo- 
spheric influences, and scarcely sufficient is yet known to 
establish even generic characters on the consistence of the fruit. 
There is scarcely more accuracy in the next subdivision, 
which is propounded absolutely without reference to any excep- 
tions, and would appear to be among the easiest characters to 
ascertain, “ Convolvulee : Subtribus 1. Stylus unicus. Subtri- 
