384 • NOTE ox THE GENUS STKEPTOSTIGMA. 



valves breaking away from the septa, which remain attached to the 

 axis of the capsule as thin scarious meiubranes. The ripe capsule ap- 

 pears to have two iuteguments, the outer coriaceous coat of each valve 

 separating from the inner or more crustaceous one, Avhose margins alone 



are iuflesed. 



It has been remarked long ago, by De Candolle and others, that Eri- 

 cem are intermediate between Calyafiorce and Corollifloi'ce ; and though 

 the present genus certainly tends to favour this view, it does not in our 

 opinion throw any further light upon the position of the great order, 

 or rather alliance, of Ericere. These great groups of Jussieu arc no 

 doubt, to a great extent, artificial, but in the present state of systematic 

 botany they are essential aids to determining the positions of the many 

 Natural Orders they include : for this purpose we believe them to be 

 the most valuable that have been suggested hitherto. 



Plate XL 5. rig. 1, leaf; 2, bract ; 3, flower ; 4, corolla ; 5, the 

 same laid open; 6, stamen; 7, pollen; 8, ovary cut across; 9, ripe 

 fruit, with persistent sepals, and lower series of stamens ; 10, dehiscing 

 capsule; 11, seed; 12, the same with testa removed; 13, section of 

 albumen and embryo; 14, embryo : — all magnified. 



Note on the Genera Streptostigma, Kegel, and Stbeptostigma, 



Thwaites; hy Beethold Seemann, Ph.D- 



At page 298 of the present volume, Mr. G. H. Thwaites, of Peradenia, 

 in Ceylon, has given the name of Stre^tostujma to a Sapindaceous 

 genus, being of course xmaAvare that the name had been conferred, 

 about a year before, upon a Solanaceous plant by Mr. A. Kegel, of 

 Zurich. In ' Bonplandia,' vol. ii. p. 35, I pointed out the identity of 

 Kegel's genus witb Bentbam's Thiuogeton {Dictyocalyx, Hook, fil.), 

 the twisted stigma seen by Kegel being a monstrosity ; — ^but as the 

 soundness of my view was called into question by tte author of the 

 Solanaceous Streptosllgma (Gartenflora, Jahrg. 1834, p. 106 and 170), 

 I may be allowed to state, that Mr. E. Kegel himself has written to me 

 to say that he lias abandoned his position, and joined me in the one I 

 bave taken up in tMs (question ; so that the name of Thwaites' genus 

 requires no alteration, — ^Yllicb it would, if Kegel's Streptostigma had 

 not proved identical with Thiuogeton. 



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