31 



61. SOLANUM betaceum. Cav. ic. vol. G. t. 524. 



This plant is noticed for the sake of identifying- it with 

 the " Tree Tomato," which has appeared in several collec- 

 tions, from seeds gathered in the woods of Tucuman by Mr. 

 Tweedie. It was long ago figured in the Botanisfs Bepo- 

 sitory, t. 511, and was afterwards lost. It is a tall coarse 

 weedy looking plant, with large heart-shaped leaves, and little 

 axillary racemes of pale violet flowers. It has no beauty 

 whatever ; but its name seems to indicate the fruit being used 

 for sauces ; it has not ripened here that I know of. 



Endlicher^s Genera Plantarum. (See Bot. Reg. misc. 1839. p. 40.) 



There is great satisfaction in being able to announce that 

 this highly important work will probably be completed in the 

 course of the present year. The twelfth part, published in 

 Vienna in November last, has reached this country, and goes 

 as far as genus 5213 Arversia, in the midst of Caryophyllese. 

 The whole of the manuscript of the body of the work has been 

 some time in the printer's hands, and the Supplement, a very 

 important part, is now engaging the learned author's constant 

 attention. When the work is fully before the public, it will 

 have placed systematic Botany in a better position than it has 

 been in since the appearance of the Genera Plantarum of 

 Jussieu, half a century ago. The recent appointment of Dr. 

 Endlicher to the charge of the Botanic garden of Vienna, as 

 the successor to the late Baron v. Jacquin, will be most grati- 

 fying to all the friends of science ; and the more so, as it was 

 the spontaneous and unsolicited act of the Emperor. 



CATALEPSY* of Physostegia virginiana, Benth. (Dracoceplialum virginia- 

 num. L.) 



There are some curious and interesting remarks upon this 

 subject by Prof. Morren, in the Bulletin de V Academie royals 

 de Bruxelles, no. 10 for 1836, of which the following is an 

 abstract, with the wording in some respects altered in conse- 



* Catalepsy is defined to be a disease in which the nerves and power of 

 voluntary motion are suddenly suspended, the body and limbs of the patient 

 remaining unmoved in the situation in which they happen to be at the 

 moment of the attack, and readily receiving and retaining any other position 

 which is communicated to them by external force. 



