(« 349 x.) 
XII. Description of a new Genus belonging to the N rap Epid 
of Plants called Scrophularine. By Mr. David Dog Libr. L.S. 
Read March 21, 1826. 
Tue discovery of new generic forms is always a subject of great 
importance in a natural system, as they tend to throw light on 
the affinities of those groups already known to us, and conse- 
quently to give us more enlarged views of the beauty and ad- 
vantages of the natural classification. What renders the pre- 
sent genus still more interesting is its partaking of the characters 
of two very distinct natural orders. Possessing all the essential 
marks of the Scrophularine, it agrees also with Jacaranda, a 
genus belonging to the Bignoniaceæ, in the form and covering 
of its seeds. This new genus I propose to denominate Lopho- 
spermum, a name compounded of nogos a crest, and creux seed, 
in allusion to the form of its seeds. It consists at present of 
only two species, both natives of Mexico, where they were dis- 
covered by the Spanish botanists Sessé and Mocinno, in whose 
herbarium the one is marked Besleria scandens, and the other 
Scrophularia physalodes,—names, no doubt, vaguely given them 
at the time of collecting by the discoverers, of whose zeal and 
knowledge ample testimony is afforded by the extensive collec- 
tions which they made in that interesting country. In a natural 
series our genus must be placed near to Maurandia and An- 
tirrhinum. Its affinity to the former is shown by its calyx and 
capsules; but its compressed, tuberculated, winged seeds, and 
the 
