Mr. J. Miei's ow the Solanacese. 11 



fleshy, and completely adnate to the dissepiment. I have also, 

 in the work above referred to, directed attention to the striking, 

 fleshy, epigynous gland, which has been quite unnoticed by pre- 

 ceding observers, and it is singular that so remarkable a feature 

 should have been omitted in the ' ProdromiTs/ The genus Sco- 

 polia, as enlarged by M. Dunal, is divided into four sections, 

 Datora, Physochlana, Anisodus and Scopolia, groups which ap- 

 pear to me all generically distinct. Datora evidently belongs to 

 Hyoscyamus rather than to this genus. In Scopolia, judging 

 from the plants I have seen growing in Kew Gardens, the inflo- 

 rescence is always solitary, a single flower upon a long slender 

 peduncle springing from between the two petioles of the gemi- 

 nate leaves of each distant axillary node of the main stem, and 

 this feature is confirmed in the description of the same species 

 by M. Dunal (Prodr. p. 556). Dr. Putterlich, however, in stating 

 the flowers to be solitary and pseudo- axillary, adds that in reality 

 it is terminal, from the centrifugal evolution of its 2-3-choto- 

 mous stem ; I confess that I have been unable to distinguish 

 this character : its calyx is urceolate, membranaceous, and re- 

 gularly 5-toothed : the corolla has a somewhat broad, bell-shaped, 

 almost cylindrical tube, with five very short erect lobes ; and 

 although the tube is plicated, the lobes are distinctly imbricated 

 in aestivation : this last feature is acknowledged by Dr. Putter- 

 lich, but unnoticed by M. Dunal : the ovarium, at its base, is 

 imbedded in an adnate, fleshy, 5-lobed disk, a character existing 

 also in Hyoscyamus and its several allied genera : the capsule, 

 invested by its thin persistent calyx, bursts by a small membra- 

 naceous, circumscissile operculum. In Datora, the type of which 

 is the Hyoscyamus muticus, Linn., the inflorescence is described as 

 " floribus apice ramorum racemoso-spicatis " as in Hyoscyamus : 

 the calyx in like manner is tubular, 10-ribbed, with five long aci- 

 culate teeth ; this also increases with the growth of the fruit, be- 

 comes rigid in textui'e, but more ventricose, while the withering 

 teeth collapse and cover the inclosed capsule, instead of remain- 

 ing erect and spinose : the corolla and stamens differ in no re- 

 spect from those of Hyoscyamus : the operculum of the fruit is, 

 in like manner, hard and hemispherical, with a chartaceous sep- 

 tum ; indeed I cannot perceive from the descriptions, any single 

 character diff"erent from that genus, except that the calyx becomes 

 more ventricose, and the teeth, instead of remaining erect and 

 rigid, collapse and wither over the enclosed capsule : there is 

 nothing here, however, to justify its being placed in Scopolia : 

 I am not sufficiently acquainted with the plants of this section 

 to offer a decided opinion ; but if it really differ generically from 

 Hyoscyamus, it must remain a distinct genus (perhaps Secarana, 

 from its Arabic name, for Datora is too near Datura to be per- 



