Mr. J. Miers on some of the Heliotropiez. 108 
rejection of the barbarous Argyope, which has obtained cur- 
rency with Lucas, Walckenaer and others. Latreille* has 
changed it (on what grounds I know not) to Argyopes, making 
it a masculine; and he is followed by Sundevall, Koch, Key- 
serling, and others. It is desirable that the genus should 
henceforth resume its original and correct name—Argiope, 
Sav. & Aud. 
XIX.— Observations on some of the Heliotropies. 
By Joun Miers, F.R.S., F.L.8., &c. 
[Concluded from p. 183. ] 
MESSERSCHMIDTIA. 
The late Mr. Robert Brown (in 1810) pointed out the neces- 
sity of constituting a distinct genus for those species of Towrne- 
fortia which differed from all the others in having the border 
of the corolla cleft into subulate lobes, a baccate fruit contain- 
ing four nucules (each unilocular and monospermous), the seed 
with a very curved embryo and a superior radicle (Prodr. 
p- 496); but he omitted giving a name to the genus. In 1819 
Rémer and Schultes adopted this view, calling the genus 
Messerschmidtia, a name previously given by Linneus to 
those species of Tournefortia which have a fruit with two 
nucules, each 2-celled. As such characters, according to their 
showing, belonged to Tournefortia proper, the Messerschmidtia 
of Linneus naturally fell to the ground. Adopting it, there- 
fore, for the group in question, they enumerated eleven species, 
all natives of the New World, mostly climbing or subscandent 
plants; but it is strange that among these there appears only 
one species that answers to the essential characters of their 
own generic diagnosis. G. Don (1837), following the same 
train, amplified the species to twenty-four, in total disregard 
of the distinguishing features of Messerschmidtia, associating 
with them several belonging to Heliophytum. Endlicher (1838) 
acknowledged the genus, and gave it a tolerably correct dia- 
gnosis, though with some few errors. By some authors the 
name has been applied to other very different groups, selected 
from Tournefortia; and this has caused no little confusion. 
DeCandolle, in his elaboration of the Borraginee (in 1845), 
quite ignored Messerschmidtia as a genus, admitting neither 
that of Linneus nor of Rémer and Schultes; but he retained 
this name, as a section, for a small number of species of Tour- 
nefortia possessing very different characters (Prodr. ix. 528). 
* Cuvier’s Régne Animal, nouy. éd. iv. p. 70-(1829). . 
14* 
