132 Prof. Wiegmann on the Genus Procyon. 



is furnished with a few minute imbricated scales, similar to 

 those which surround the ovule when very young : this stalk 

 is thus probably a young shoot. 



By those botanists who retain Taxus in Monadelphia, and 

 who consider the rachis as the staminiferous column of a 

 single flower, this genus will also be placed there ; but the 

 examination of the rachis, or male amentum of Podocarpus, 

 indicates that it is composed of numerous flowers. 



I shall only further remark, that with regard to the Taxus 

 nucifera, to which Dr. Torrey alludes in his letter to me, 

 all the figures and descriptions given by modern bota- 

 nists appear to be borrowed from Kaempfer (Am., p. 814, 

 t. 815), and Gaertner. The reticulated arillus inserted be- 

 tween the flesh and the nut resembles closely the fibrous part 

 of the testa of Torreya. Gaertner remarks : " Corticis bac- 

 cati figuram et descriptionem a Kaempfero mutuatus sum: 

 videant itaque alii num omnino clausus, anne saltern per ma- 

 turitatem apice obturatus sit ? Arillus, quern ad naturam de- 

 lineavi, nihil aliud esse mihi videtur quam involucri carnosi 

 membrana interna." But, whatever be the case with respect 

 to the Japan plant, we cannot view in this light the testa of 

 Torreya, Gaertner describes and figures the embryo as placed 

 at the base of the albumen ; but he does the same in Taxus 

 baccata, which we know to be incorrect. Dr. Torrey men- 

 tions that the male flowers are those of a Taxus ; but as his 

 specimens (as likewise those in my herbarium) were collected 

 by Dr. Wallich in Nepal, distributed by him under No. 6054 

 of his Catalogue, and considered by that eminent botanist as 

 but doubtfully the same as Kaempfer^s species, we may still 

 look on the true T. nucifera as involved in great obscurity, as 

 to both kinds of flowers. 



XIII. — On the Genus Procyon, with a Description of two new 

 Species, By Prof. F. A. Wiegmann*. 



I have been induced to publish these few observations in order 

 if possible to obtain a more accurate account of the country of 

 the species, which would fix their geographical range, this 

 being one of the main objects of special zoology. The two new 

 * Extract from Wiegmann's Archiv fiir Naturgeschichte, Part IV. 1837. 



