388 . New Genus of Plants of the order Santalacee. 
appear to be very scarce. In August, 1841, however, Mr. Darby 
obtained the unripe fruit, which, he remarks, is “ baccate, one- 
celled, one-seeded, apparently inferior, but there is no cohesion 
of the ovary with the calyx: style one.” Mr. Darby had. re- 
garded the plant as probably a new genus, but, on account of its 
free calyx, (having also apparently overlooked the tuft of hairs, 
é&c., in the staminate flowers, which indicate its close relationship 
to Comandra,) he had referred it to the wrong natural order. In- 
deed, if the calyx-tube does not cohere with the ovary, an unex- 
pected anomaly in the character of the order Santalacez is here 
presented. We are at present unable to verify this point, Mr. Dar- 
by’s fruiting specimens having recently been lost by shipwreck, 
along with many other invaluable specimens and notes, on their 
way from Georgia.* 
In directing the attention of the botanists of upper Carolina 
and Georgia to this interesting shrub, I would specially request 
that the pistillate flowers and young fruits may be preserved in 
spirits, in order, not only that the peculiarity already alluded to 
may be satisfactorily determined, but more particularly, that the 
structure of the ovula and the fecundation, so peculiar in this 
natural family, may be duly studied. For the same reason, 
specimens of the pistillate flowers of Pyrularia, Michx., (the 
Hamiltonia of Muhlenberg,) and also of Buckleya, Torrey, pre 
served in spirits, are particularly desired hy the writer. 
As I have no doubt that this shrub adds another to our few 
genera of this interesting order, I am desirous that it should bear 
the name, and commemorate the botanical services and zeal of 
Prof. Darby, one of its discoverers, to whom a large part of our 
still incomplete knowledge of it is mainly owing. Lappend, there- 
fore, its technical characters, as at present known. 
DARBYA, Gen. Nov. Ord. Santalacearum. 
Flores dioici. Mase. Perigonium simplex, turbinatum, ad me- 
dium 4-5-fidum ; lobis ovatis patentibus. Diseus crassiusculus, 
ie ede ace 
*Jn answer to a particular inquiry, Mr. Darby informs me, by letter, that his 
memory is not positive as to the want of cohesion between the calyx an 
ovary, and that some notes made with the plant before him, were lost with the 
fruiting specimens. He remarks, also, that the mature fruit was not soft ane 
pulpy, as he supposed from the earlier stage it would prove to be. It is therefore 
probably similar in texture to that of Pyrularia, or Buckleya, or perhaps-even dry; 
like that of Comandra. 
