Concerning this, however, we have no information from 

 Mr. Douglas, by whom it was sent to the Horticultural So- 

 ciety from California, It flowers in the autumn, and ripens 

 seeds in tolerable plenty. 



What gives it its chief interest is its remarkable structure, 

 and the station it occupies in the natural system of plants. 

 Dr. Brown, who first examined it, considers it to form, along 

 with Flurkea, an obscure North American plant, a new 

 Natural Order which he calls LhnnanthecB, and stations near 

 Geraniacem and their allies. In this view we have not hesi- 

 tated to concur, although, as far as regards Fl'di'kea, we had 

 expressed a different opinion in the account we gave of that 

 genus in Dr. Hooker's Journal of Botany. Without over- 

 looking its manifest relation to Geraniaccce, we had consi- 

 dered Florkea to be upon the whole more nearly related to 

 SanguisorhecB than to any other plants. But at that time 

 Limnanthes was unknow s and we had nothing to connect 

 Florkea more with one Natural Order than another. Now 

 that Limnanthes has been discovered, it becomes obvious 

 that Flurkea, which is closely allied to it in structure, 

 is more nearly akin to Geraniacece than to Sanguisorbece, 

 and that it must constitute a new form in the groupe of 

 Gynobasic Natural Orders. But while we admit this, it is 

 necessary to add that we do not therefore give up the affi- 

 nity of Florkea to Sanguisorbece ; on the contrary, we con- 

 sider it one of the links by which the gynobasic and pol}^- 

 carpous groupes of Dicotyledonous plants are connected. 



In the Analysis of tlie parts represented in the plate, 1 . is the ovary, sur- 

 rounded by the 10 stamens, the sepals and petals being cut away; 2. a stamen, 

 with the projection at its base, a. ; 3. the ripe fruit enclosed in the calyx ; 4. 

 a nucule separate ; and 5. the same cut through horizontally, to shew the coty- 

 ledons of the embryo. 



