GENERA OF ACANTHACEjE. 77 



have still to expect from some botanist who, with Professor Nees's in- 

 exhaustible patience and scrupulous exactness in the examination of so 

 difficult a tribe, may be possessed of a more methodical mind, and a 

 greater aptitude for seizing at a glance and generalizing the distinctive 

 marks of the larger groups, always more or less indicated by nature. 



As evidence in support of the presumption that Professor Nees him- 

 self did not clearly comprehend his own genera, I would instance the 

 following species, which have been twice described by him in different 

 genera, as shown by authentic specimens in the two above-mentioned 

 herbaria. I do not include some cases where there are slight differ- 

 ences which he might have considered as generic, although we might 

 not regard them even as specific ; but the great majority of the subjoined 

 are identical specimens, that is, specimens from the same station and 

 collector communicated as identical, and in all cases each specimen an- 

 swers to Nees's description in both places which he has assigned to 

 them. I have not either included specimens inadvertently misnamed 

 by him, as that may frequently occur by accident in naming large 

 masses of plants, but have confined myself to authentic original speci- 

 mens described ; and were we to pursue this comparison with the origi- 

 nal specimens in the East Indian and other herbaria he had before him 

 at the time, there is little doubt but that the list might be considerably 

 extended. My object is to plead some excuse for those who, like my- 

 self, in naming Acanthacece, have been so often unable to fix upon the 

 Neesian genus to which they should be referred, and to show the ne- 

 cessity of a general revision and consolidation throughout the Order. 



Hygroyhila Schottiana, N. ab E. in Prod. p. 87 = Calophanes crinitus, N. ab E. ib. 



p. 107. 

 Stenosiphonium diandrum, N. ab E. p. \b§ = Eddopogon consanguineus ; N. ab E. 



p. 104. 

 Tricenanthus Griffithianus, N. ab E. p. 169 = Strobilanthes flaccidifolius, N. ab E. 



p. 194. 

 Goldfussia Zenkeriana, N. ab E. p. 172 = Strobilanthes aliatm, N. ab E. p. 183. 

 Mackenziea sessilis* N. ab E. p. 308 = Strobilanthes cerinthoides 9 N. ab E. p. 734. 

 Monothecium glandulosum, N. ab E. p. 310 - Bostellularia glandulosa, N. ab E. 



p. 373. 



umbrosus 



Heinzelia ovalis, N. ab E. p. 314= Chcetothyla* 



* The ticket attached to the only specimen described by Nees was inscribed 

 " Ceylon, J. S. Mackenzie," but in a handwriting which apparently he could not well 

 make out. 



