Linncean Society. 3/5 



The Chairman announced to the Meeting that the late Nathaniel 

 John Winch, Esq., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, had bequeathed to the 

 Society his entire Herbarium, consisting of upwards of 12,000 spe- 

 cies of plants, together with his library of Natural History. 



November 20. — Mr. Forster, V.P., in the Chair. 



Read the Description of a new Genus of Plants belonging to the 

 Natural Family Bignoniacece. By Professor Don, Libr. L.S. 



The subject of this paper was collected by Capt. Sir James Ed- 

 ward Alexander, during a journey through the interior of Southern 

 Africa to the western coast. The plant was discovered by that en- 

 terprising traveller in the open desert, called the Kei Kaap, in Great 

 Namaqua Land, in 25° S. latitude and 17° E. longitude. It is a 

 thorny bush, about six feet high, with small simple, hoary, wrinkled 

 leaves and large white flowers. There can be no doubt that the 

 plant belongs to the Bignoniacece, although in habit it bears a stronger 

 resemblance to Verbenacece, especially to Duranta and Gmelina. In 

 its spathaceous calyx and regular funnel-shaped corolla the genus 

 comes near to Spathodea, but is abundantly distinguished from it by 

 the cells of the anthers being parallel and connate from the middle 

 upwards. On the specimen were two expanded flowers and a bud. 

 The calyx in all three had six teeth, and both the expanded flowers 

 had a six-cleft limb ; one of these had seven stamens, and the other, 

 as well as the bud, six, so that this last may be regarded as the 

 normal number. 



The following are the name and characters of this new genus. 



Catophractes. Calyx spathaceus, hinc fissus, inde 6-dentatus. Corolla 

 infundibuliformis : limbo 6-lobo, patenti, sequali. Stamina 6, raro 7, 

 subaequalia, exserta. Aatherarum loculi parallel!, e medio sursum con- 

 nati. Ovarium abbreviating, conicum, biloculare ? 



Frutex (namaquensis) erectus spinosus. Folia fasciculata, simplicia, 

 Flores laterales, subsessiles, speciosi, albi. 



Sp. 1. C. Alexandria 



There was also read an account of a new species of Lepidosperma. 

 By Dr. John Lhotsky. 



This species is nearly allied to the Lepidosperma elatior of Labil- 

 lardiere, and is remarkable for the great length of its leaves, varying 

 from 10 to 15 and even 20 feet. A specimen exhibited to the meet- 

 ing had the leaf upwards of 13 feet long. It was discovered by 

 Dr. Lhotsky in Tasman's Peninsula, Van Diemen's Land, growing 

 in a dense jungle, through which its long slender leaves contrive to 

 penetrate. It is termed " Cutting Grass," and like the other spe- 



