306 Prof. Dox's Description of a new Genus of Plants 
three has six teeth, and both the expanded flowers have a six-cleft limb; one 
of these is furnished with seven stamens, and the other, as well as the bud, 
with six. The stamens are erect, nearly equal in length, and partly project 
beyond the tube of the corolla. The flowers are therefore completely regular, 
and, from the circumstance of the two expanded flowers and the bud having 
a six-lobed limb to the corolla, and being furnished with six or sometimes even 
with seven stamens, we may justly conclude that the normal number is really 
six in this plant; but had there been only a single flower, I should have re- 
garded the excess of lobes and stamens as an accidental occurrence, and the 
normal number as five, as in those species of Spathodea which have the fifth 
stamen perfectly developed, and the flower consequently pentandrous. 
The following are the characters of this new genus: 
CATOPHRACTES. 
Syst. Linn. HRXANDRIA Monocynia. 
Ord. Nat. Bignontacex. Br. 
Character Essentialis. 
Calyx spathaceus, hinc fissus, inde 6-dentatus. Corolla infundibuliformis : 
limbo 6-lobo, patenti, equali. Stamina 6, rard 7, subæqualia, exserta. 
Antherarum loculi paralleli, e medio sursüm connati. Ovarium abbre- 
viatum, conicum, biloculare ? 
Frutex (namaquensis) erectus, spinosus. Folia fasciculata, simplicia, penni- 
nervia, crenato-serrata, Flores laterales, subsessiles, speciosi, albi. 
Descriptio. 
eee erectus, rigidus, spinosus, orgyalis, basi multidivisus. Caules plures, 
virgati, simpliciusculi, obsolete tetragoni, cortice spadiceo, pube stellata 
brevissimá, præsertim apicem versus, dens? canescenti-tomentosi. Spine 
gie primariz mutatae) supra-axillares, decussato-oppositæ, subu- 
latæ, validæ, horizontaliter porrectæ, vix pollicares. Folia primaria non- 
dim vidi; secundaria in ramulis parüm evolutis fasciculata, simplicia, pe- 
tiolata, ovalia v. cuneata, retusa, levitérque ema 
rginata, grosse æqualitèr- 
que crenato-serrata, coriacea, semipollicaria, 
penninervia, subtüs costata, 
