280 OBSERVATIONS ON PLANTS 



several octandrous species of which, belonging to tlie same 

 section, are ah'cady known. 



Another species of Capparis, also from Bonion, exists 

 in the herbarinm. It appears to be undescribed, and to 

 belong to M. De Candolle's first section of the genns ; 

 bnt the specimen is too imperfect to be satisfactorily 

 determined. 



Both these species have acnlei stipulares, and it may here 

 be remarked that all the plants belonging either to Cappa- 

 ris, or to any of the genera of the order whose fruit is a 

 beny, in which these aculeiare found, are indigenous either 

 to Asia, Africa, or Europe; while all the aculeated Cleomes, 

 with the exception of perhaps a single African species, are 

 natives of equinoctial America. 



MiEiiUA iiiGiDA. This plant, of which flowering s])eci- 

 mens were collected at Aghedem, certainly belongs to 

 Forskal's genus Moerua, adopted by Vahl and De Candolle ; 

 and I believe it to be a species distinct from the three 

 already published. It is very nearly related, however, to a 

 fourth species [M. Senegalensis nod.), of which I received a 

 specimen from M. Desfontaines. M. De Candolle has 

 placed the genus Maerua at the end of Capparideae, between 

 which and Passiflorea^ he considers it intermediate. This 

 view of its relation to these two orders I cannot adopt. 

 To me it appears trnly a Capparidea, having very little 

 affinity with Passiflorese, to which it seems to approach in 

 one point only, namely, the corona of the calyx. But of a 

 similar corona rudiments exist in several other African Cap- 

 parideae, and from some of these the genus Maerua is Avith 

 difficulty distinguished.^ 



' M.E11UA. 



Maerua. Forsk. Arab. p. 101. Fc/M. ^ymh. 1, p. 3G. De Cand. Prodr. 1, 

 p. 254. 



Char. Gen. Cah/x tubulosus : Umbo 4-partito, restivatione simplici serie 

 valvata : corona faucis pctaloidca. Vetahi nulla. Stipes genitalium eloiigatus. 

 Htamina nuincrosa. Pericarpiiim (siliquiforme ?) baccatuni. 



Frutices inermes., p2ibe, dam addt, simplici. Folia simplicia coriacea : peliolo 

 cum denticnlo rami articulalo : stipulis mimUissimis setaceis. 



M.13RUA. rir/ida, coijmbis termiualibus paucifloris, foliis obovatis crassis 

 rigidis aveniis nervo obsoleto, corona lacero-multipartita. 



Desc. Frutex ? 7?6^w«stricti teretes teuuissiiiiepubesceutes. i^o//^ sparsa, 



