linearia, ohtusa, cotnprcssa, r/lahia, reairvata. Achcnia in radio tantilm 

 maturcsccntia, cunciformia, comprcsso-pcntar/ona, glabra, nigricantia, foliolis 

 involucri obvoluta exterioribus, umbilico emarginaturd unilaterali ! apice 

 calva : disco epi^yno nuiumo. — Don MSS. 



** The present shewy species is distinguished from the 

 rest of its congeners by its elevated hairy receptacle, which 

 in the others is depressed and naked. The genus, founded 

 by Molina on a Chile plant, famous for the oil expressed 

 from its seeds, although consisting of but few species, has 

 a pretty extensive geographical range, being found in the 

 temperate regions in both hemispheres of the American 

 continent. It is nearly allied to Un.via and Siegesbeckia ; 

 but the former is essentially distinguished by its simple 

 involucrum, and the latter by its paleaceous receptacle. 

 The florets of the ray in Siegesbeckia are also most fre- 

 quently bilabiate, and those of the disk quadrifid, and 

 sometimes tetrandrous. This genus exhibits a striking 

 example of a fact, which I have elsewhere (Edinb. New- 

 Phil, Journ. Oct. 1831) shewn, namely, that the presence 

 of papillee on stigmata affords no evidence of their fertility ; 

 for here the florets of the disk with almost smooth stig- 

 mata uniformly perfect seeds ; while in JSIadia, where the 

 stigmata are thickly beset with bristly papillae, the florets 

 of the disk are generally sterile. This group, for which I 

 have preferred the name of MeUunpodecE, as being derived 

 from a genus affording a better type of it than either Milleria 

 QY Siegesbeckia, is characterised by a herbaceous involucrum, 

 composed of an almost definite number of nearly equal 

 leaves, by the florets of the disk rarely perfecting seeds, 

 and by the turbinate achenia being destitute of pappus or. 

 seed-crown, and furnished at the top by a very small 

 epigynous disk. It will contain, besides ]\IelainjJodiu77i 

 and the present genus, Centrospermum (hardly distinct from 

 the first), Jcegeria, TJnxia (from which ViUanova of Lagasca 

 is scarcely to be separated), Eriocoma, Polijmnia, Moutauoa, 

 Zaluzania, Siegesbeckia, Milleria, and Sclerocarpus, compre- 

 hending, in fact, the greater part of M. Cassini's Helianthecs- 

 Milleriees. This learned Botanist has referred Melam- 

 podium to his first group, or AHllhnces-vrais-regulihres, and 

 AJilleria and Uihvia to his second group, denominated 

 Milleriees-vrais-irri's:uUeres ; while Madia, VilUoiova, and 



