Mr. J. Miers on several genera hitherto placed in Solanacese. 167 



fruit, which is most generally 2-celled, with many seeds fixed to 

 thickened placentae adnata to the dissepmient, and having a 

 terete embryo, more or less curved, with an inferior radicle, cha- 

 racters that are common to the whole of this large group. So 

 gradual is the transition from one link to another of this chain, 

 that it is difficult to discover any decided break in their conti- 

 nuity, but notwithstanding this, they form too large an assem- 

 blage to constitute one single family. The SolanacecB, as distin- 

 guished from the Bcropkulariacece in general, exhibit characters 

 sufficiently marked, but the difficulty lies with the large interme- 

 diate group above indicated, that equ.ally partake of the features 

 of both these extremes. I am quite averse to the practice of 

 multiplying unnecessarily the amount of natural orders beyond 

 the smallest possible number : it is not therefore any idle no- 

 tion of proposing a new family that leads now to this sugges- 

 tion, which would defeat its own object unless supported by 

 facts, and urged by the necessity of the case ; but it is the desire 

 of grappling with a formidable obstacle, that would otherwise 

 prevent us from establishing any decided limits between these 

 two great families. If this difficulty presented itself to me in so 

 prominent a degree three years ago (Lond. Journ. Bot. v. 183, 

 note), when I first noticed the anomaly in Lycium, and suggested 

 its separation from SolanacecB on that account, with how much 

 more force must this discrepancy present itself, when the ex- 

 ceptionable cases now amount to so extensive an accumulation 

 in point of number ! The aestivation of the corolla has hitherto 

 been considered to form an unerring line of demarcation between 

 the Solanacea and Scrophulariaceae, but if we place in the former 

 family a large proportion of genera possessing an imbricate aesti- 

 vation, and offering frequently nearly anisomerous flowers (cha- 

 racters peculiar to the last-mentioned order), we lose at once the 

 only valid features that can serve to discriminate the boundaries 

 of these great families. It is clear that the intermediate group 

 here proposed to be collected together can only be disposed of 

 in three modes : they must be associated either with the Sola- 

 nacecE, or be attached to the Scrophulariacece, or else they must 

 remain as a distinct family. In the first case, the Solanacece would 

 be then divided into two suborders : 1. the Solaninees, having a 

 corolla with valvate aestivation ; and 2. Atropines, with imbricate 

 aestivation. In the second case we should associate, 1. Atropinecs, 

 with flowers neai'ly isomerous ; and 2. Scrophularine(E, with ani- 

 somerous flowers. In either of these two cases we find that in- 

 consistency to a great extent would be unavoidable ; for in the 

 former instance we admit a large circle of exceptions to the only 

 leading characteristic mark of the order ; and in the second case 

 we include a considerable number of genera, nearly isomerous, in a 



