541 NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN PLANTS. 



et patulis, subdivisionibus singulis bracteola subulata sub- 

 tensis. — Brown. 



COMETES SURATTENSIS. BlU'lIl. Tab. 17. 



Eolus cuneato-obovatis, ellipticisve ; ramulis leevibus ; 

 stipulis petiolaribus ; fructus involucri ramulis fasciculatis, 

 imis deflexis. — Brown MSS. 



The genus Cometes, proposed by the younger Bur- 

 mannus (in Flora Indica, p. 39), was adopted in Mantissa 

 prima by Linnaeus, whose generic character agrees in most 

 respects with the short description of Burmannus, from 

 which it was no doubt chiefly formed : as, however, it 

 differs in some points, he probably had seen and slightly 

 examined the original specimen, which Burmannus may 

 have taken with him to Upsal, as it is known he carried 

 there for Linnseus's determination many of his rarer 

 unpublished plants. But Linnaeus, in describing the fruit 

 is] of Cometes to be a " capsula tricocca" must have pre- 

 sumed on the affinity which he erroneously supposed the 

 genus to have to Dalec/iampia. 



Burmannus's specimen of Cometes swrattensis I have seen 

 in his Herbarium, now in the possession of Baron Deles- 

 sert. It corresponds tolerably with the figure in Flora 

 Indica, which, notwithstanding some differences, was pro- 

 bably made from it. 



When engaged in drawing up the catalogue of Mr. 

 Salt's Abyssinian plants, it occurred to me that the genus 

 which I have in that catalogue named Saltia, was at least 

 nearly related to Cometes ; but I had at that time no means 

 of verifying my conjecture. I afterwards, however, re- 

 quested M. Decandolle to examine the specimen in M. 

 Delessert's Herbarium, and the result of that examination 

 is given in a note attached to the specimen, written by M. 

 Delessert in 1816, in which it is stated, on M. DecandohVs 

 authority, to be a species of his genus Besmochceta, or 

 Pupalia of Jussieu. 



In September of the same year I examined the specimen, 

 and left attached to it the following note, which refers to 



