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A Descrlptkyn of the genus Malesherhia of the Flora Peruvi- 

 ana ; with RemarTcs on its Affinities. By Mr David Don, 

 Libr. L. S. ; Member of the Imperial Academy Naturae Cu- 

 riosorum, of the Wernerian Nat. Hist. Society, &c. 



i HE characters and habit of Malesherhia appear to me suffi- 

 ciently important to establish it as the type of a distinct natural 

 group, to which the name of MalesherhiacecB may be given. 

 The necessity of attending minutely to the structure, both of 

 the flower and fruit, is now universally admitted ; and I wish it 

 were as generally allowed, that the object of the botanist should 

 be rather to point out the real structure and affinities of indivi- 

 duals, than to attempt extensive and unnatural combinations, in 

 the present infantine state of botanic science : for it must be ad- 

 mitted, that nothing is more injurious to a system, than the un- 

 natural association, either of genera or species ; and perhaps no- 

 thing has tended more to retard the advancement of systematic 

 botany, than the fear of an unnecessary multiplication of names, 

 thereby inducing the contracted notion of retaining entire many 

 heterogeneous orders and genera. If we but turn our eyes over 

 the pages of works professing to be general Systems of Plants, 

 we will find abundant evidence of the justness of what has been 

 advanced ; and if we but consider how few individuals in any of 

 the extensive genera or orders have been investigated with that 

 care and precision by which the true nature of their parts, and 

 their relative affinities, can alone be ascertained, we should not 

 perhaps be so averse to their separation into smaller groups. 

 The Malesherhiaceoe agree on the one hand with PassiflorecB, and 

 on the other with Turneracece. They differ from the former in 

 their erect ovula ; in the insertion of the styles ; in their ascending 

 incumbent anthers ; in the placentae not extending above the 

 separation of the valves ; in their naked seeds ; in their 

 thick, fleshy, almost hemispherical cotyledons ; and finally, by 

 their great difference in habit, and by the absence of stipules at 

 the base of the leaves. From the loiier (Turner acecB), y/v'ith. 

 which they agree well in habit, and in the structure of their 

 fruit, in their erect ovula, in the structure of the anthers, and 

 in the furrowed nature of their seed-covering ; they are essen^ 



