THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 



" perlitora spargite museum. 



Naiades, et circtJm vitreos considite fontes : 

 Pollice virgineo teneros h\c carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divee, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o Nymphee Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deae pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



N. Parthenii Giannettasii Eel. 1. 



No. 79. JULY 1854. 



I. — On the Genus Lycium. By John Miers, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 



1 HIS genus is truly cosmopolitan, being* found abundantly in 

 Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, in the former more rarely in 

 regard to the number of species, in the latter most abundantly. 

 The species are mostly low straggling shrubs, or bushes of 

 crooked and stunted growth, generally with thorny branches, 

 often barren and knotty, the younger branches bearing usually 

 fasciculated leaves: these branchlets commonly dwindle into 

 short acute spines, which are both leafy and floriferous. They 

 grow ordinarily in maritime situations, or in inland sandy deserts, 

 where the soil is more or less impregnated with saline matter. 

 Contrary to general rule, the leaves and the habit of the plants 

 afford uncertain specific characters ; for the leaves are often so 

 polymorphous, that specimens of the same plant are sometimes 

 mistaken for different species, and on the other hand, many 

 species so closely resemble each other, in habit and form of their 

 leaves, that they are frequently confounded together*. For 



* This was long ago (1813) shown by Poiret, who says, Diet. Method. 

 Suppl. iii. 427 : — " La pkipart des especes qui composent les Lycium. sont 

 Ann. 6f Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xiv. 1 



