308 Prof. Don’s Description of a new Genus of Plants. 
affinities, and connected, as they are, on the one hand with the symmetrical 
families Cobæaceæ, Polemoniaceæ, and even Apocynec, and on the other with 
the unsymmetrical ones of Cyrtandracee, Acanthaceæ, Pedalinee, Sesamee, 
and Scrophularineæ, we need not be surprised to find amongst them genera 
with perfectly symmetrical flowers. 
The generic name refers to the peculiar situation of the leaves and flowers 
below the spines, and is compounded of zéro», infra, and Peunros, munitus. Its 
enterprising discoverer is commemorated in the specific name. 
- EXPLANATION OF TAB. XXII. 
Fig. 1. Upper portion of a stem of Catophractes Alexandri. 
Fig. 2. Tube of the corolla laid open, with the stamens. 
* 
Fig. 3. Pistillum; all of the: natural s 20 À 
Note.—Since the preceding account was read before the Society, I have 
been favoured by Mr. Burchell with flowering specimens of two species of his 
remarkable genus Rhigozum, namely R. spinosum and obovatum, and by Mr. 
Bentham with a specimen of the latter species, with two separate fruit. These 
plants agree well with the present in habit, but the calyx is short, wide, and 
campanulate, with an equal limb, neither cloven, nor spathaceous ; the corolla 
has a very short tube, much narrower than the calyx, with the faux much di- 
lated, ventricose, and campanulate; the stamens are unequal in length, two 
of them being longer than the rest. The margin of the leaves in all the spe- 
i ol Rhigozum hitherto known is perfectly entire. From these differences, 
ore, it is evident that Catophractes must either constitute a distinct ge- 
ted to Rhigozum. It clearly forms the 
a very marked Section if uni 
on from that genus to the pentandrous simple-leaved Spathodee. 
