REVISION OF THE GENUS TANJECIUM. 81 



they may commemorate individuals or circumstances connected with 

 their discovery, as the place where they were originally found, and as 

 such are not only unobjectionable, but highly instructive. Precisely the 

 same objection might be made by another purist to crispa, as Dr. Cas- 

 pary makes to Lithuanica, for the plant is not crisped, and only the 

 margins of its leaves are so. Dr. Caspary is an accomplished botanist, 

 who, by his observations on the germination of OrobancJie, on the struc- 

 ture of the flowers of Crucifera, and on various other botanical subjects, 

 has already earned a high reputation ; he is about to publish a revision 

 of the Anacharidece, and a monograph of Nymphceacem^ of the great 

 value of which works we are well assured ; and we have no doubt he 

 will find (like many of his predecessors) that as his botanical horizon 

 enlarges, his inclination to change specific names will diminish. 



■ 



Revision of the Genus Tan^cium ; by Berthold Seemann, 



Ph. D, F.L.S. 



In the sixth volume of this Journal I submitted a revision of those 

 genera of Crescentiacea characterized by a deciduous, irregular (spatha- 

 ceous or bipartite) calyx, and now I beg to offer a revision of those 

 having a persistent, regular one, the section Tanceciece. I commence 

 with the type of the section, the genus Tancecium. Amongst the va- 

 rious species that have from time to time been referred to this genus, 

 three must be excluded, viz. : — 1. T. ? paniculatum, Sieb., which is 

 doubtless a Bignoniacea proper, most likely a species of Arrabidaa ; 

 2. T. pinnatum, Willd., which is identical with Kigelia pinnata, De 

 Cand. ; and 3. T. tripinna, Rseusch, a synonym of Colea tripinnata, 

 Seem. (Tripinnaria Cochinchinensis, Lour.), whilst two new ones (T. 

 crucigerum, Seem., and T. lilacinum, Seem.) have to be added. The 

 genus will then be found to consist of four well-defined species, all be- 

 longing to the tropical parts of America, where they inhabit the woods 

 and trail about the trees. They arrange themselves into two very 

 natural groups, the one having non-rooting branches, compound, eco- 

 riaceous leaves, and white, pubescent corollas; the other, rooting 

 branches, simple, coriaceous leaves, and glabrous corollas, of a scarlet, 

 pink, or more or less bluish tint. The former is represented by T. 

 rrucigerum and albiprum, the latter by T. pnrasiticum and lilacinum. 



VOL. IX. 



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