/^ 



151 



insertus, reflexus." De Caiidolle, in his Prodromus, retains 

 the characters, " Calyx intus villosus aut 5-plicatus : Petala 

 ; " but so far adopts the idea of Kunth as to include only 

 C. horrida and C. serratifoUa among the Colleti(B verce, whilst 

 C. obcordata and C. Ephedra, are put into the section (?) Re- 

 tanilla. The others come among the " species non satis notce." 



Thus stood the genus Colletia, till 1827, when M. Adolphe 

 Brongniart's " Memoire sur la famille des Rhamne'es," ap- 

 peared in the 10th vol. of the Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 

 There, part of the character of Colletia runs, " Petala nulla 

 vel minutissima, linearia," and " Discus brevis, cupulajformis, 

 fundo calycis adnatus:" and the species included are C. 

 Jiorrida, serratifoUa, tetragona, a new species from Peru, and 

 C. pubescens, a New Holland one from my Plerbarium, which 

 has a short tube, petals, and a disc of a very different charac- 

 ter from that of C. spinosa, to which is added, as a " species 

 affinis," C. infesta [Ceanothus infesta, Kunth and De Caii- 

 dolle, which has petals and a disc lining the whole tube : — 

 while Colletia obcordata and C. Ephedra, of Vent, are trans- 

 ferred to the new genus Retanilla. 



In all the species now noticed, there is so strong a general 

 resemblance that it seems almost a pity to separate them 

 generically, and Brongniart, who has so done, has nevertheless 

 included into his Colletia species with and without petals, 

 and with a disc of at least three very different structures. If, 

 therefore, Retanilla is to be removed from Colletia, by the 

 same rule C. pid)escens and C. infesta ought to be: and, now 

 that we are acquainted with three other Colletice, from the 

 travels of Dr. Gillies, agreeing in every essential particular 

 with the generic character of C. horrida, I shall deem this 

 latter the type of the genus, which I would thus define : 



COLLETIA. 



Cal. subcampanulatus, 5-fidus, coloratus, supra-basin de- 

 mum circumscissus. Petala nulla. Antherce reniformes 

 vel cordatae, subuniloculares sulco hippocrepico dchis- 

 centes. Discus annularis, angustus, carnosus, integer, re- 

 flexus, supra basin calycis insertus. Germen superum vel 



