To no part of this arrangement can I assent. Nothing 

 can be more unnatural than to mix up these fetid, soft-leaved, 

 scandent, lurid plants with Wahlenbergia, which in all its 

 habits more resembles the little Cape Lobelias. It is im- 

 possible they can belong to the same genus. As little can it 

 be permitted that the name Megasanthes, first propounded in 

 a work of no Botanical authority, should take precedence, 

 whether for sectional or generic purposes, of the much older 

 name Glossocomia, applied about twenty years since to one of 

 the species, afterwards merged in Codonopsis, and now sepa- 

 rated again. It may be difficult to say what the real charac- 

 ters of the genus may be ; but it is impossible to doubt that 

 it is different both from Wahlenbergia, and from Codonopsis 

 as now limited. 



The Codonopsis lurida, described in this work in the 

 miscellaneous matter for 1839, no. 12G, is another species of 

 Glossocomia. 



Fig. 1. represents a vertical section of the three-celled 

 ovary, showing the nature of the placenta. 



A pretty hardy perennial, with spindle-shaped roots ; 

 rather pretty, much slenderer than G. lurida, but not inclined 

 to twine like that species, and seldom growing more than one 

 foot and a half high. It flourishes well in any good garden 

 soil, and flowers in July. 



It is easily increased from seeds, treated like those of 

 Campanula carpatica, and the more slender of that genus. 



