Mr. J. MIers on the Solanaceaj. 95 



I have hitherto only spoken of the section Athencea^ and it now 

 remains to consider the other species included in the same genua 

 by M. Dunal : of these it is evident that only two really belong 

 to Withania — the original W. aristata, Pauq., and W. frutescens, 

 Pauq., which form a genus marked by distinct characters, the 

 limits and differential features of which have been defined in 

 ' Hook. Journ.' i. 225 (Illust. S. Am. Plants, ii. App. p. 7) ; the 

 remaining nine species are referable to Hypnoticum, Larnasc and 

 Puneera, genera confounded by M. Dunal in the genus Withania, 

 This last-mentioned genus differs from Hypnoticum in its urceo- 

 late calyx with five long setiform teeth, the tube expanding with 

 the growth of the fruit into a large bell -shaped cup, with a still 

 broader open mouth, in the bottom of which the berry is seated; 

 this cup is of somewhat thickened texture, glabrous, and very 

 reticulated by numerous strong transverse veins between its ten 

 longitudinal nervures ; the margin is almost entire, with five 

 long setiform processes, which are extensions of the principal 

 nerves : in Hypnoticum the calyx is tubular, very tomentose, with 

 five broad short teeth ; this increases in size, becomes inflated in 

 the middle, contracted in the mouth, with five erect short teeth, 

 finely reticulated in texture, and enclosing the berry as in Phy- 

 salis. In Withania the corolla has the form of a very short tube 

 below, with a limb of equal length, divided into five elongated 

 narrow lobes obtuse at the apex ; the stamens are shorter than 

 the tubular portion ; the filaments, much dilated at base, form a 

 disjointed annular ring adnate to the base of the coi'oUa; they 

 are compressed, gradually narrowing toward their summit; the 

 anthers, equal to them in length, are erect, pointed at the apex, 

 and cordate at base, by the divarication of the two parallel cells : 

 in Hypnoticum, the corolla is smaller than in Withania, and more 

 tubular ; the tubular part, not exceeding the length of the calyx, is 

 marked below the mouth with five coloured spots ; it has a small 

 border of five short angular reflexed teeth ; the filaments are fili- 

 form, arising out of as many expanded processes adnate to the base 

 of the corolla, and the anthers are formed of two parallel cells, with- 

 out intervening connective. In Withania the stigma is formed 

 of two lips with a large iutei-mediate globular stigmatic gland : in 

 Hypnoticum the stigma is clavate, obsoletely 2-lobed. In Withania 

 the berry is small, seated in the broadly campanular expanded 

 calyx, containing few seeds, which are proportionally large, 

 somewhat conchoid, the embryo of more than a circle, being 

 spirally helical : in Hypnoticum the berry is larger, generally of 

 a bright scarlet colour, 2-celled, filled with very numerous small 

 seeds, which are reniform and compressed, with a spiral and 

 nearly annular embryo ; the cotyledons, equal in length to the 

 terete radicle, are subdilated and accumbent. These differences 



