4 ILLUSTRATIONS OP 



On tJie Genus ATROPA5 hy John Miers, Esq., F.E.S., F.L.S., &c. 



Atropa. 



On a former occasion I have alluded to the marked feature of the 

 imbricate aestivation of the corolla in this genus, as a character quite in- 

 compatible with its position among the Bolanacem^ and have therefore 

 an-anged it along with several others in a distinct ij^t^ Atro^em, 

 (Ann. Nat. Hist, n, Ser.) forming one of many groups, which I 

 have associated in a separate family or sub-order, whose peculiar 

 features are there delineated. This genus has hitherto been so very 

 indistinctly defined, and its limits so little understood, that it has served 

 as a receptacle for many heterogeneous plants belonging to Solanacem^ 

 so that out of the numerous species placed in it by various authors, I 

 can find only one remaining, the well-known Atropa belladomia, I 

 have, however, met with, cultivated in our gardens, another species 

 which, although indicated, has never before been fully described. In 

 order to remove the confusion hitherto existing in this genus, I have 

 collected together all the plants placed by botanists in Atropa, with a re- 

 ference to the several genera to which they are now properly referrible. 

 The following is ofi'ered as a more correct outline of the features of the 

 genus, the details of which, with some few exceptions, are very faith- 

 fully delineated by Nees v. Esenb. Gen. PL EL Germ. (Gamopet. 

 vol. i.) in his analysis of Atropa belladonna. 

 Atropa, (Char, emend.) — Calyx urceolato-campanulatus, 5-partitus, 



:miis duplo-triplove tubo brevissmao 



infundibuliformi 



lata, limbo brevi, 5-partito, laciniis oblongis, obtusis, sestivatione 

 imbricatis. Stamina 5, sequalia, inclusa \filammta imo corollee adnata, 

 basi crassiuscula, foraicata, lanata, superne subulata, apice subito in- 

 flexa ; antherm ovatse, deflexa), 2-lobae, lobis parallelis, sine connec- 

 tivo medio nexis. Ovarium ovatum, conicum, disco carnoso 4-lobo 

 impositum, 2-loculare, placentis cum dissepimento cruciformibus mox 

 lunatis incrassatis, ubique ovuligeris. Stylus filiformis, apice inflexus, 

 et incrassatus. Stigma subglobosum, labiis 2 transversis compressis 

 glandulosis signatum. Bacca globosa, 2-sulcata, 2-Iocularis, calyce 

 patente suffulta. Semina pluriraa in pulpam nidulantia, reniformi- 

 ovata, subcorapressa, testa favoso-scrobiculata, hilo sublaterali. 



