1820.] Physical Science during the Year 1819. 115 



IV. Botany. 

 By Samuel Frederick Gray, Esq. 



1. SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



Ranunculacece. — A very able monograph of the genus Paeonia 

 has been written by the hite Mr. Anderson. Linnasus had re- 

 duced all the pseonies to one species ; but Mr. Sabine having 

 collected upwards of seventy plants, under different names, iu 

 consequence of this opportunity of comparing the species, the 

 monograph was drawn up. All the species are confined to the 

 colder climates of the old Continent, and they are now carried to 

 the number of 13, of which one is shrubby, and forms the pride and 

 glory of the Chinese gardens; Avho boast of having rendered it a 

 shrub by their skill in horticulture, it having been originally, like 

 all the rest, herbaceous : no wild specimens have yet been found of 

 this species. Of the 13 species here enumerated, two of them, P. 

 arietina and P. mollis, are undoubtedly new. Mr. Sabine, who 

 publishes the paper of his deceased friend, compares the species 

 contained in this monograph with those enumerated by De Can- 

 dolle, in the first volume of his " Systema Naturale Regni Vege- 

 tabilis," and shows the coincidence between the two lists. He 

 is inclined to reject the two additional species m.entioned by M. 

 De Candolle, P. Tatarica, for which he seems to have had no 

 other authority than Miller, and Miller's plant is (he P. para- 

 doxa of Anderson, and the P. peragyna of De Candolle ; and P. 

 laciniata, taken from Willdenow, which is probably a strong 

 growing plant of P. tenuifolia. Trans. Lin. Soc. xii. 



The organs of growth in myosurus minimus have, according 

 to Cassini, been mistaken. The plant consisting of a tuft of 

 fibrous roots, buried in the earth, from which springs a white, 

 cylindrical, hard caudex, hitherto considered as part of the root, 

 but which really participates of the nature of both root and stem, 

 and serves to raise up the tuft of leaves and peduncles to the sur- 

 face of the water. Bull. Philom. Rafines({ue has also described 

 a new species of myosurus, under the name of M. Shortii, in 

 Silliman's Journal. 



Cruc'ifcrcc. — A new genus has been lately established of these 

 plants, whose general resemblance is so striking, namely, Ste- 

 vensia. Its characters are — Calyx rather spreading, 2- bagged 

 at the base; stamens simple, lanceolato-subulate; siliqua sessile, 

 crowned by the style, compressed, linear, elliptic, edge sinuated, 

 few-s«edcd, opening by a straight valve; seeds immarginate; 

 cotyledons accumbent. There is only one species, S. alys- 

 soides. 



Passijlorecc. — A new species of passiflora, P. racemosa, is de- 

 scribed and figured by Professor Brotcro. Lhm. Tr. xii. 



u2 



