5W Mr Amotf s Tour to the Pyrenees. 



leriana globularieEfolia * (which, however, was more abundant 

 nearer the top), T'iwwia polytricJioides, Ixmicera pyrenaica, and 

 Saxifraga long'ifoUa, but not in flower. About half way up 

 the ridge, we came to a small piece of level ground, on which, 

 to our surprise, we saw several very lowland plants, as Ornitho- 

 galum umbellatum and Helianthemum penicillatiim, mixed with 

 others of an alpine appearance, as Anthyllis montana^ Plan^ 

 iago sericea, and Aster alpinus. Towards the summit we 



me to be contradictory and incomprehensible. I have never seen the mature 

 fruit, but the structure of the ovarium is as follows : It is unilocular ; the 

 margins of the future valves are introflexed, and united for some way to the 

 contiguous margins of the other valves ; they then divaricate, and bear to- 

 wards their extremity the placenta, to which are attached the very mmute 

 and numerous ovula : the capsule opens by the separation of the introflexed 

 margins. This structure is perfectly analogous to what we find in the Gen- 

 tianecB^ but with which tribe our plant has nothing else in common. If we 

 now suppose the introflexed margins to be sutnciently elongated, and to reach 

 nearly the centre of the fruit, we shall have the bilocular capsule of Verbas- 

 cum ; and I, therefore, agree with those who have hitherto left Ramondia 

 among the Solanece. 



I am aware that M. A. Richard has lately taken a different view of its 

 structure. He describes the introflexed margins as " two opposite parietal 

 placentae or trophosperms, simple at their origin, but split each internally in- 

 to two divaricating and recurved laminse, the inner face of which is entirely 

 covered with the ovula ;" but from my observations, the ovula are only at- 

 tached to the extremity of this body, which induces me still to think, that 

 what is to him the simple part of the placenta, is really the introflexed mar- 

 gin of the valves. On account of this supposed structure, Richard approaches 

 Ramondia to such of the Gesneriacece as have the ovary free, from which it 

 differs by the equal corolla and stamens ; but in which respect he acknow- 

 ledges its aflfinity to the Solanece. With regard, again, to the Gesneriacece 

 with the ovary free, including Columnea, Achimenes (or Trcvirana), Basleria^ 

 and perhaps Arragoa, Richard has also proposed to separate them from the 

 GesneriacecBy and unite them to the Orobanchece ; but in the latter tribe, when 

 the capsule opens, the placentae are found not marginal, but in the middle of 

 the valves, (it is so at least in Orobanche^ Phelypea^ Lathrcea^ and Epiphagus) ; 

 and this, though not of itself a character of suflftcient importance, yet, when 

 joined to the remarkable difference of habit, and to the circumstance that, in 

 the Orobar^checB^ the small embryo is situated laterally near the apex (not at 

 the base, as Dr Hooker states in his Flora Scotica) of the fleshy albumen, ought 

 to keep them distinct. I may remark here, that the whole of the Gesneriacece 

 require to be reconsidered ; the few that I have examined differ slightly from 

 the character of the order as given by Richard. 



* This appears to me to be a mere variety, with the cauline leaves pin- 

 natifid, of V. saxalilis of the Alps. 



