Mr Don on the genus Malesherhia. 3^1 



tially distinguished by the presence of si corona, arid in the per- 

 sistent nature of the inner series of the floral envelope ; by their 

 incumbent anthers ; by the insertion of the styles ; by the pla- 

 centae being confined to the lower half of the capsule ; by their 

 straight embryo, and by the form of the cotyledons ; and, last- 

 ly, by the absence of the fleshy scale (probably the rudiment of 

 an arillus) at the base of the seed. The MalesherhiacecB appeal 

 to be related also in a certain degi^ee to Loasece^ whose charac- 

 ters and affinities are yet but imperfectly understood. M. Au- 

 guste de St. Hilaire, in his valuable memoir on the affinities of 

 the Cucurbitacece, has already pointed out the affinity of Tur- 

 neracecB and LoasecB to Passiflorece. 



The genus Malesherbia was established by Ruiz and Pavon 

 in their Genera Plantariim FlorcE Peruviana et Chilensis, pub- 

 lished in the year 1794, and dedicated to the memory of the 

 unfortunate M. Lamoignon de Malesherbes, a distinguished 

 philosopher, and a great lover of botany, who fell a victim to 

 his zeal for the cause of justice and humanity, and for the ho- 

 nour and glory of his country, in the early part of the French 

 Revolution. The genus was subsequently published by Cava- 

 nilles, in the fourth volume of his Icones Plantarum^ under the 

 name of Gynopleura ; but what was his object in changing the 

 name does not appear, neither is it a niatter of any importance. 

 I shall now proceed to give a botanical description of the group, 

 which may equally be considered as that of the genus^ 



MALESHERBIACEife. 



Passiflorearum genus, Juss. 



Perianthium monophyllum, tiibulosum, membranaceum, inflatUm, 

 coloratum, nervis dec«m in limbo diffuse ramosissimis, e basi sur- 

 sum peragratum : faux corona continuata brevissima membra- 

 nacea v. acute dentata V. 10-loba, laciniis 2-4-dentatis, ornata: 

 limbus duplici ordine 10-fidus, uterque persistans, patulus, sesti- 

 Vatione imbricata ; interiore petaloideo, aestivatione convoluta. 



Stamina 5, hypogyna, exserta, apici columnae inserta, laciniis in- 

 terioribus perianthii o^pposita :Jilamenta filiformia, glabra, com- 

 pressiuscula : ardherw lineares, retusae, biloculares, filamentis 

 mediate annexae, incumbenti-erectae : hculis parallelis, margine 

 longitudinaliter dehiscentibus, ab insertione filamenti ad apicem 



, fere usque confluentibus. 



Pistillum : ovarium apici columnae adnatum, subglobosum, obscure 

 triangulare, uniloculare : ovulis erectis, biseriatim indefinitisy fu^ 



