284 OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURAL FAMTLT 



io4] by Dombey, and which exactly agrees with Sobreya of the 

 Flora Peruviana, it appears evident that this genus is redu- 

 cible to Meyera. Enhydra of Loureiro's Flora Cochinchi- 

 nensis, though described somewhat differently, and referred 

 to Polygamia segregata, I have little doubt, belongs to the 

 same genus; as does unquestionably Hinystha of Rox- 

 burgh's unpublished Flora Indica, where it is also referred 

 to Polygamia segregata. This plant, which I have exa- 

 mined, is scarcely distinct from a species of Meyera that 

 grows in New South Wales. 



Cryphiospermum of Mons. de Beauvois's interesting Flore 

 d'Oware et Benin, although reduced by him to Cichoraceae, 

 I have but little hesitation in referring also to Meyera. 

 And lastly, Ccesidia radicans of Willdenow, likewise a 

 native of aequinoctial Africa, is perhaps not specifically dif- 

 ferent from Cryphiospermum repens of Mons. de Beauvois. 



Melampodium 



was established by Linnaeus, in the first edition of Genera 

 Plantarum and in Hortus Cliffbrtianus, from a specimen 

 found by Houston near Vera Cruz, and communicated by 

 Miller to Clifford, in whose Herbarium, now forming part 

 of the collection of Sir Joseph Banks, it still exists. It 

 does not appear that this plant has been found by any 

 other botanist than Houston; and according to the cha- 

 racter given by Linnaeus of Melampodium, it must be con- 

 sidered the only species of the genus. 



In the second edition of Species Plantarum he added to 

 it, but with a doubt, Melampodium ausfrale, a plant 

 adopted from Lcefling, according to whose description the 

 pappus and surface of the seed are widely different from 

 those of the original species. Swartz has referred to the 

 genus a third species, M. kumile, entirely distinct in these 

 respects from both the former ; and more recently a fourth 

 species, M. lonyifolium, with seeds differently modified 

 from all the others, has been annexed to it. 

 io5] But if these four plants, so extremely different from 

 each other in pappus and form of the pericarpium, really 



