THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 15. MARCH 1849. 



XVIII. — Observations upon several genera hitherto j)laced in 

 Solanacese, and upon others intermediate between that family 

 and the Scrophulariacese. By John Miers, Esq., F.R.S., 

 F.L.S. &c. 



My attention during the last few years having been directed to 

 the study of the Solanacece, I have given the results of this in- 

 quiry in a series of memoirs in the ' Lond. Journ. Bot./ vols, iv.^ 

 v. and vii.j and also in the ' Illustration of South Amer. Plants/ 

 where delineations are offered of the peculiar features of each 

 genus. Having at length completed the analysis of the remain- 

 ing genera of this order, the results will be given in succession 

 in this Journal ; but in order to explain my views in regard to 

 that family, the following observations are necessary. 



Following the track I had marked out as the basis of these 

 investigations, which has been chiefly to satisfy myself by careful 

 analysis of the true limits that serve to separate different genera, 

 I have encountered a number of facts which are very difficult to 

 reconcile with our present distribution of the Solanacetp, and 

 which have induced me to carry this inquiry much further than 

 was at first contemplated. These results having been published 

 at intervals, as they presented themselves, the order in which 

 they have appeared is necessarily imperfect in a systematic point 

 of view ; but as my principal object has been to arrive at truth, 

 I expect some degree of indulgence, for what may appear as de- 

 fects of arrangement and want of plan. I have alluded to the 

 increasing number of novel cases that have offered themselves 

 during this inquiry, which render it difficult to decide whether 

 certain genera should be classed in Solanacece or in Scrophula- 

 riacece, as these natural orders are at present considered ; and in 

 consequence of the accumulation of these anomalies, it appears 

 at length necessarily expedient to draw a more certain line of 

 distinction between these two important natural orders. This 

 difficulty is not new in the history of the science, for nearly forty 



Ann. i^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. iii. 1 1 



