.574 Mr. Don's Description 



by all his acquaintance. In the natural system Cowania must 

 be placed near to Bryas, with which it agrees in the unifor- 

 mity of the divisions of the calyx, being destitute of the ac- 

 cessory segments found in Sieversia, Geiim, Potentilla, &c., and 

 likewise in having coriaceous, reticulated leaves, naked and 

 shining above, woolly underneath, and with their margins re- 

 volute. It is to be observed, however, that in Drtjas the calyx 

 is 8- or 10-cleft, and scarcely tubular, the leaves undivided, 

 and the flowers white, on long footstalks ; but the most impor- 

 tant character of Cowania, by which it is at once distinguished 

 from Dryas and all its co-ordinates, is to be found in the re- 

 duced number of its pistils, which are from five to eleven 

 — a very small number, when compared with that of other 

 genera of this family. The hollow pear-shaped calyx of this 

 plant points out decidedly the true nature of the fruit in Jlosn, 

 which is nothing more than the tube of the calyx formed into a 

 kind of receptacle, as has been justly remarked by our learned 

 President and Mr. Woods. There cannot, I think, be a sha- 

 dow of doubt as to the propriety of uniting the PotentilUe 

 of Jussieu, the Dryadea of M. Decandolle, with Rosa in the 

 same natural family. I shall now proceed to give descrip- 

 tions of these two plants. 



COWANIA. 



Char Essent. Calyx o-fidus. Petala 5. Ovaria 5 — 11 : 

 ovulo erecto. Styli terminales, continui. Achenia stylis 

 plumosis persistentibus aristata. Embryo erectus. 



Descr. Flores polygami. Calyx obturbinatus basi attenuate 

 tubulosus, intils striis numerosis parallelis exaratus, exti^s 

 glandulis tectus, limbo 5-fidus : lobis subajqualibus subro- 



i tundo-ovalibus, patulis, retusis cum mucronulo ; accessoriis 



nuUis. 



