SOUTH AMERICAN PLANTS. 15 



Witheringia 



In 



Physalis the corolla is generally campanulatCj with an almost 

 entire pentangular border^ rarely 5-lobed ; in Witheringia the tube 

 is very short, the border patent and cleft nearly to the base into 

 five equal oblong acute segments, while in Saracha the corolla 

 is contracted at its base into a short tube, and suddenly spreads 

 above into a border quite rotate, which is pentangular or half 

 cleft into five lobes. In the latter genus the stamens are gene- 

 rally slender and distinct at their origin, being simply inserted 



Withering 



Hebecladus 



from as many triangular expansions, sometimes separated by 

 small distinct intervals, at others almost or wholly united into an 

 annular ring adnate to tjie tube a little above its base : in Withe- 

 ringia these processes are most distinctly developed ; in Saracha 

 the same occurs in a greater or less degree, but they are gene- 

 rally more separated and completely free, arising from the mar- 

 ginal base of the tube ; in Physalis these expansions are quite 

 adnate with the tube. In Saracha^ as in Hebecladus^ the berry 

 is supported by the persistent calyx, which although more or less 

 expanding in size with the growth of the fruit always remains 

 rotate, not vesicular and inclosing the berry as in Physalis, Ni- 

 candra and some other genera- In Saracha, as in these genera, 



with 



Witheringia 



thin, membranaceous, and branching at right angles from the 

 axile line of the dissepiment into the cavity of the cell, when they 

 are free, furcated and ovuHgerous, In Saracha and in Physalis the 

 embryo is semicyclical, the radicle being double the length of the 

 cotyledons ; in Capsicum it is quite spiral and somewhat hehcal, 

 the cotyledons being equal in length to the radicle ; but the latter 

 describes only a half-circuit of much larger radius, while the 

 former makes fully a complete gyration of smaller diameter. In 

 Witheringia the embrj^o is subannular, forming nearly fths of a 

 circle by no means spiral, and the cotyledons are only ^th of its 

 whole length. The following I conceive to be the limits of this 



genus 



Saracha, R. & P., char. tmend^.—Calya: brevis, submembra- 

 naceus, 5-angulatus, 5-dentatus, 5-nervosus, dentibus acutis 

 brevibus, persistens. Corolla rotata, limbo sinuato, 5-angu- 

 lato, seepissime 15-nervio, lobis s. angulis reflexis, ^stivatione 

 valde induphcato-valvata. Stamina 5, tubo corollse prope mar- 

 ginem basalem afRxa, ejusdem longitudine ; filamenta filiformia, 

 erecta, basi triangulariter dilatata; antherce approximatse, ob- 

 longse aut subrotundse, basifixse, 2-lobse, lobis arete connatis 

 et longitudinaliter antice dehiscentibus. Ovarium ovatum, 



