BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 247 
Batatas, which has a four-celled ovary, and reduced to the 
common B. acetosefolia, only found in maritime sands. 
Ipomea purga, Wender, well known by good descriptions 
and by Zuccarini's figure, quoted by Choisy (we have not 
seen Nees’s figure), possesses a hypocrateriform corolla and 
exserted stamens. It is placed in Jpomea, of which part of 
the character is “ Corolla campanulata, stamina inclusa.” 
This same genus Jpomea, “nunc, speramus, stricte defi- 
nitum," of which the corolla is stated to be “ campanulata,” 
without any explanation or exception, is made to include 
twenty-six species * corolla tubulosa” (one of them, J. pilosa, 
has it in fact remarkably broadly campanulate), ten species 
“corolla infundibuliformi," six * corolla tubuloso-infundibuli- 
formi,” besides innumerable others with a long tube, a hypocra- 
teriform limb, an inflated, ventricose or urceolate tube, &c., 
which may all be modifications of the campanulate; but to 
be intelligible as such, the generic character would surely 
have required some explanation. 
Moorcroftia is admitted as a genus, from an innate con- 
viction of the author that it is a genus; the reasons for 
which he does not impart, as it confessedly waits for a cha- 
racter, 
The subdivisions of. Zpomea aud Convolvulus are derived 
chiefly from the duration of the plant, the volubility of the 
stem, and the form of the leaves, the most uncertain of all 
characters ; whilst the striking variations in the calyx, the 
anthers, &c., are neglected. 
We must, moreover, protest against the constant use 
of positive dimensions in the specific diagnoses, especially 
when drawn from those parts of the plant most subject to 
Variation in this respect. 
Passing over the anomalous genus Erycibe, which we regret 
to see established as an order (on account of the few species 
it contains), but which we have not had leisure to examine, 
We come to the Boraginee from De Candolle's manuscripts, 
enriched with additions and most important notes by his 
