370 Mr. J. Miers on the genus Authocercis. 



together with the style, towards one side of the more expanded 

 portion of the tube. 



I have frequently alluded to the fact of the extrorse position 

 of the stamens among the Duboisiece, where it occurs constantly. 

 In Duboisia, Anthotroche, and another genus to be proposed, 

 each anther consists of a single hippocrepiform cell ; but in An- 

 thocercis, although the anther is equally reniform and extrorse, 

 it is formed of two divaricated curving cells, closely united at 

 their apex ; this bursts externally by two lines parallel with the 

 margin. This extrorse position of the anthers appears to be 

 otherwise quite unknown throughout the Solanal alliance, and 

 would lead us to suspect that the Duboisiees really belonged else- 

 where, did not all the other characters unquestionably place them 

 here. This anomaly is probably explained by a circumstance that 

 in the course of this investigation fell under my observation : in 

 A. gracilis I found a single flower with its corolla much dis- 

 torted, where two of the stamens were hippocrepiform, 1 -celled, 

 and extrorse, as in Anthotroche, and the other two were bilocular, 

 with parallel cells, and introrse. A hint may be obtained from 

 this accidental deviation from the ordinary form of development, 

 and we may reasonably infer from the circumstance, that the uni- 

 locular hippocrepiform anther of Anthotroche, seen also in many 

 genera of the Scrophulariacete and Myoporacece, is not formed, as 

 has been usually supposed, by the confluence of the two cells, but 

 by the total abortion of one of the ordinary lobes, the other and 

 more external one assuming a crescent form, by its unrestrained 

 development around a large globular pollen receptacle. We see 

 a very close approximation to this irregularity in Browallia, 

 where one of the anther-cells is much smaller and often very 

 minute, always sterile, and void of pollen, while the other is re- 

 niform as in Anthotroche. In Brunsfelsia there is an evident 

 confluence of two cells in a reniform shape, but in Franciscea 

 there is a total abortion of one of the cells, and its curvature in 

 a crescent form, as in Anthotroche. 



For reasons assigned in another place, I have excluded A. albi- 

 cans and scabrella, and added two that are new, making in all 

 six species belonging to this genus, which are all found on the 

 S.W. coast of Australia, between Swan River and King George's 

 Sound. From an examination of these species I have found it 

 necessary to modify, in the following manner, the character of 

 this genus. 



Anthocercis, Labill. Nov. Holl. ii. 19 ; R. Br. Prodr. 448 ; 

 Endl. Gen. no. 3902 ; Iconogr. tab. 68 ; Benth. in DC. Prodr. 

 x. 191. — Char, emendat. — Calyx campanulatus, 5-costatus, 

 5-fidus, laciniis acutis, carnosis, costis continuis, tubum sequan- 



