Mr. J. Miers on the genus Lycium. 5 



In order to prevent a multiplication of these errors, it appears 

 desirable to abolish these sections altogether, and to distribute 

 the species of L/ycium in three new divisions, founded simply on 

 the relative depth of the incisures of the corolla ; viz. — 1. Brachy- 

 cope, where the lobes of the border are one-third (or less) of the 

 entire length of the corolla ; 2. Mesocope, where the segments 

 are yet longer, but do not exceed the length of the tube ; and 

 3. Macrocope, where the divisions of the corolla exceed in length 

 that of the tube : in this latter case the stamens are affixed in the 

 throat of the tube, and are far exserted, when the border becomes 

 expanded. 



I have repeatedly endeavoured to show that Lycium should 

 not be classed among the Solanacece, because of the very imbri- 

 cate aestivation of the segments of the corolla. Prof. Schlech- 

 tendal more than twenty years ago (Linn. vii. 72) clearly indi- 

 cated his doubts to this effect. M. Dunal however, in the * Pro- 

 dromus,^ still follows the example of preceding botanists in ar- 

 ranging Lycium in that family, and constitutes it the type of one 

 of his great divisions of the Solaninece {Lycinea), which there 

 comprises a number of genera that have little relation with it, or 

 with each other, as I have shown {huj. op. xi. p. 9). Evidence 

 had previously been offered by me demonstrating its position in 

 the family of the Atropacece and in the tribe Atropece, as it pos- 

 sesses those essential characters by which that tribe is pecu- 

 liarized {huj. op. iii. 166). Although in its general features it 

 offers some approach to Atropa, it comes nearest to Mandragora 

 in its floral structure, but not in its habit, agreeing with it in the 

 form of its calyx, its tubular corolla with a border of five equal 

 segments having an imbricated sestivation, one being always 

 exterior ; in its stamens inserted in the tube, the filaments often 

 very unequal in length, being generally furnished with tufts of 

 hair a little above the geniculated points of their insertion ; in 

 the style being declined away from the external lobe of the 

 border ; in the form of its stigma, its bilocular ovarium with 

 large fleshy placentae adnate to the dissepiment, in its baccate 

 fruit supported by its persistent unchanged calyx, and its spiral 

 terete embryo. 



The calyx in Lycium is generally small and cupshaped, with 

 five erect teeth ; these are mostly equal, but sometimes one, two, 

 or three of the teeth become imperfectly confluent with the 

 others, appearing thus irregularly 3 -toothed or bilabiate, a 

 feature originating, as before observed, in the partial splitting of 

 the teeth, a character that often varies in amount with its age, 

 and in the same specimen : it is always persistent, and little 

 changed with the growth of the fruit. The corolla is always 

 contracted below the point of insertion of the stamens, is cylin- 

 drical towards the base, the tube being often inflated or more or 



