THE FLORA OF SOUTH AMERICA. 335 
3.41 lab. 325. Another species, also confounded with it, had 
been long previously known and figured by Plumier, under 
the name of Belladonna frutescens (tab. 46, f. 1). The authors 
of the Flora Peruviana have given a representation of a fourth 
species, under the name of Lycium aggregatum, (2.45. tab, 
182. f. a.) ; but as the characteristic features of the genus are 
not delineated in the figures above quoted, nor any exact 
details have, to my knowledge, yet been published, I offer the 
following from my own observations. 
Acnistus Schott. (char. reform).—Calyx campanulatus, sub- 
5-gonus, obsolete 5-dentatus. Corolla hypogyna, infundi- 
buliformis, fauce sensim ampliato, limbo 5-partito, patento, 
reflexo, æstivatione lobis margine floccosis, valvato-indu- 
plicativis. Stamina 5, corolle tubo supra basin inserta, 
filamenta simplicia; anthere 2-lobe, longitudinaliter dehis- 
centes, sæpe exsertæ. Ovarium e disco calycino ortum, 2- 
loculare, placentis crassis, dissepimento adnatis, pluri-ovu- 
latis. Stylus simplex. Stigma capitatum, sub-bilabiatum, 
Bacca calyce suffulta, 2-locularis. Semina pauca, renifor- 
mia, compressa; testa rugosa, dura. Embryo intra albu- 
men carnosum, hamato-arcuatus, cotyledonibus semitere- 
tibus, radicula tereti, inferne crassiori fere duplo longiori, 
hilum spectante. 
Frutices Americe tropice, folis alternis, integris, junioribus 
aggregatis ; floribus pedunculatis, in axillis sepe annotinis, 
fasciculatis, rarius in racemis terminalibus ; pedunculis 
apice incrassatis. 
There is very little tenable ground for maintaining this 
genus, as hitherto constituted, distinct from Lycium, there 
being hardly any single character that is not equally common 
to both of them, excepting the hairy tuft at the base of the 
filaments in the one, (and that is a very inconstant feature), 
and the numerous fascicles of flowers in the cicatrices of the 
fallen leaves in the other. An important distinction will, how- 
ever, be found to exist in the æstivation of the corolla. We 
have the respectable authority of Schlechtendabl and Schott, 
