Dr. SwARTz's Botanical Hijory of the Genus Ehiharla. 41 



/.'9. a new fpecies, under the name of Ehrkarta pankea, detc£led in 

 the year 1776 by Sonnerat, at the Cape of Good Hope. 



In the I'ccond fafciculus of the fame valuable work, the author 

 enriches the genus Ehrhiirta with tw-o other fpecies, the £. longiflora 

 and E. calycino, the latter of which had, fome time before, appeared 

 in the Linnean Stippl. Plantarum,p. 108. where it is called A'-ra ca- 

 penjis. 



But the great external fimilarity of this genus with that of Mclica, 

 has made me anxious to examine, with the leave of my highly ef- 

 teemed friend Prof, Thunberg, into feveral of thofe fpecies preferved 

 in his mufeum, which we find not only inliftcd in the Suppl. Plant. 

 under the generic names of Mel'ica and Aira, but even thofe inferted 

 in the firfi: part of his own Prodr. Flora diperjis', and to my very 

 great fatisfaclion, I have had the good fortune to dete6l fome poffefT- 

 ing all the chara6leriftic marks of the genus in queflion. I am happy 

 to acknowledge my high obligations to Prof. Thunberg, by whole 

 generous communications I have thus been able to attain a tolerably 

 complete knowledge of feveral beautiful kinds, which will fl:ill mor^ 

 help to fettle the limits of this moft diftinift genus, and become fo 

 many cyprefTes round the urn of a man untimely loft for fciencc, 

 *hofe name will be preferved by them in the annals of botany. 



Having now had the opportunity of ftudyiug and comparing fo 

 many fpecies, I venture to offer more accurate charafters to form 

 the natural and genuine difference of the EhrJmrta from other ge- 

 nera of the fame natural order, the chara6ler hitherto given in the 

 Suppl. Plant, and in the above-mentioned differtation, being rather a 

 fpecific defcription of the only fpecies on which this new genus was 



firft founded. 



Habitus generis naturalis. 



Radix fibrofa 1. rarius bulbofa. 



Ctt/'«/ conferti, (Implices 1. fubdivifi, fubinde ramofi, articulati, fubgc- 

 VoL.Vf. O . niculati. 



