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Sir J. E. Smith to Mr. Roscoe. 

 My dear Friend, Norwich, Oct. 1G, 1806. 



I am glad you assent to the character of Roscoca ; 

 but please to observe the irregularity of the corolla 

 is no less essential than the form of the filament, 

 &c. We must never confine our essential characters 

 to one part of the fructification, though one part 

 may give the leading mark. Corrca has an idea 

 that in every natural order there are one or more 

 genera with an irregular flower, and one or more 

 with a regular one. Since I heard this I have kept 

 it in view, and have seen much to confirm it ; yet I 

 cannot think of a regular flower among the Legu- 

 minosa, nor of an irregular one in the Caryophyllece; 

 but some may occur. 



Saxifraga sarmentosa is the irregular flower in 

 its natural order, and surely a distinct genus from 

 Saccifraga. So Celsia differs from Verbascum, I 

 think essentially. Iberis is the irregular flower in 

 its order, where one would least expect to find any. 



I have got a copy of Sir Joseph Banks's sketch, 

 made in his voyage, of the HuraSiamensium, which, 

 with the description in Retzius, are all we have to 

 know that plant by. It is a Globba, with two lobes 

 of the corolla hoisted up half way of the filament ! 



So parliament is dissolved ! I hope we shall have 

 no opposition for Norwich. 



J. E. Smith. 



