Mr. J. Miers on the genus Cacabus. 253 
cies which its authors neither saw nor examined, the drawing 
and details there given having been furnished by their draughts- 
man Tafalla, who probably never looked to the structure of the 
fruit, concluding the plant to be similar to the other species of 
Nolana there described: it is to be observed, that these species 
are as yet quite unknown to modern botanists, except from those 
descriptions, and may therefore be doubted as appertaining to 
that genus. 
In all the specimens I have examined belonging to the genus 
Cacabus, the ovarium is 2-celled, with a slender membranaceous 
dissepiment, along the axile line of which, the free placentz are 
respectively attached at right angles; these are furcated and 
fleshy, extending near to the walls of the pericarp, so that when 
the fruit is cut open, the dissepiment being scarcely visible, the 
placentations, with the attached seeds, appear disposed in a some- 
what cruciform shape, seemingly as if the berry were 4-locular. 
The fruit, according to L’ Heritier (doc. cit.), is a berry with an 
aqueous juice, as in Nicandra, and which, upon becoming dry, 
leaves a subcapsular, brittle, valveless shell, and which is bilocular 
with a membranaceous partition : as in Physalis, this berry is in- 
closed within a much larger ventricose calyx. Upon the summit 
of the ovarium and of the immature berry is seen a small flattened 
prominent gland, out of which the style originates: this bears 
much analogy to the larger epigynous gland so conspicuous in 
the ovarium of Hyoscyamus, and to which is attributable the 
peculiar mode of dehiscence in the fruit of that genus; but in 
Cacabus there is no such opercular dehiscence, although the 
gland is visible in the apex of the cells after the openmg of the 
pericarp ; a similar dise exists also in Thinogeton. I propose for 
this genus the following character :— 
Cacasus, Bernh. — Calyx ventricosus, urceolato-subglobosus, 
membranaceus, inflatus, 10-angularis, 5-dentatus, dentibus 
ineequalibus, acutis, erectis, angulis nervosis, persistens et ac- 
erescens. Corolla campanulata, tubo imo breviter coarctato, 
subito amphato, limbo campanulato, magno, margine explanato, 
subintegro, sinuato-pentangulari, 15-nervi, nervis in angulis 
ternatim parallelis, zstivatione ignota. Stamina 5, inclusa, 
fere equalia ; filamenta ad coarctationem tubi adnata, filformia ; 
anthere ovales, erectz, 2-lobz, lobis parallele adnatis, margine 
longitudinaliter dehiscentibus. Ovarium ovatum, substipi- 
tatum, apice glandulo parvo carnoso donatum, 2-loculare, pla- 
centis dissepimento tenuissimo utrinque adnatis, cruciatim dis- 
positis, et demum divaricatim 2-fidis, multiovulatis. Stylus 
filiformis, longitudine staminum. Stigma elongatum, 2-lamel- 
latum, lobis crassis subconniventibus intus stigmatosis. Bacca 
intra calycem auctum, vesiciformem, venoso-membranaceum, 
