Mr. J. Miei's on the Solanacefe. 13 



iii. p. 166), Anisodus was not included, because I had not then 

 observed tbe opei'culiform dehiscence of its fruit, a character that 

 had not been previously recorded by any observer; but I rectified 

 this subsequently [huj. op. vi. p. 37). 



M. Dunal's tribe of the Nicotianea consists of the genera 

 Nicotiana, Lehmannia, Petunia, Leptophragma and Vestia : the 

 latter genus certainly bears no affinity towards the others : it 

 was placed by me upon more solid grounds near Fahiana, in the 

 true SolanacecB, because of the valvate aestivation of its corolla, 

 and of the resemblance in the structure of its fruit and seed : 

 the other genera, by reason of the imbricate aestivation of the 

 corolla, were placed by me in Atropacece, but the Nicotianece 

 were kept as a tribe, distinct from the Petuniece, because of the 

 peculiar mode of aestivation of the corolla, of which diagrams 

 were given in explanation {hvj. op. iii. p, 173). The g^enus Lep- 

 tophragma (Prodr. xiii. 578), founded on the Salpiglossis pro- 

 strata, Hook. & Arn., will not be found to be valid. In JMarch 

 1846, I first hinted at the possibility that Callihrachoa would 

 not be found to be distinct from Petunia, on which Mr. Bentham 

 immediately suggested that both Callihrachoa procumbens and 

 Salpiglossis prostrata would in all likelihood prove to be iden- 

 tical with my Petunia anomala (see note April 1846, Lond. Journ. 

 Bot. V. 190). It will be seen from another note published in 

 Feb. 1848 (111. South Am. Plants, i. 114), that having met with 

 an opportunity of examining specimens of the two first-men- 

 tioned plants, I had found them to differ in no respect from 

 Petunia parviflora, of which I have given a drawing, with ample 

 analytical details, in plate 23. of my work referred to : I showed 

 also it is identical with the Lindernia Montevidensis, Spr. The 

 genus Leptophragma, now first established by M. Dunal upon a 

 letter fi'om Mr. Bentham of an old date, cannot therefore be re- 

 tained, and Leptophragma prostrata, Benth., can only be consi- 

 dered as another synonym of Petunia parviflora, Juss., a plant 

 that appears to have a widely extended range over the American 

 hemisphere. 



I have already offered several observations on the genus Retzia 

 {huj. op. iii. p. 181), with which M. DeCandoUe, on the authority 

 of M. Dunal, classes Lonchostoma, Wikstr. To this I cannot 

 accede, for neither the habit of the plant, nor the structure of 

 the flower, bears any analogy towards the Solanacece. On some 

 future occasion I will furnish the results of my analysis of these 

 two genera, when I will offer a few additional remarks on the 

 subject. 



M. Dunal, in his subtribe Fabianece, has in an equal degree 

 overlooked the character of aestivation, which is one of the most 

 itnportant and constant features of the genera of the Solanal 



