358 Mr. J. Miers on the genus Thinogeton. 



marked by ten prominent fleshy ribs, tapering gradually into the 

 peduncle : in Cacabus, on the contrary, the calyx is at least three 

 times the diameter of the base of the corolla, is more or less 

 globular, of extremely thin and transparent texture, venously re- 

 ticulated, plicated and deeply 5 -angular, the angles being saccate 

 at base ; the peduncle in Thinogeton, after the impregnation of 

 the ovarium, becomes immediately deflexed, grows to four times 

 its former length, and is afterwards much thickened at its apex : 

 the teeth do not increase in size, but the tube, as in Physalis, 

 becomes somewhat vesicular, reticulated, and 1 0-ribbed ; expands 

 to three times its former length, and five times its breadth, 

 its texture remaining much thicker, when compared with the 

 greatly inflated and delicately membranaceous web, which encloses 

 the berry in Cacabus. The structure of the ovarium is similar 

 to that of the last-mentioned genus, but the furcated placentae 

 are again divided, and secrete an aqueous juice, in which the 

 seeds are nourished ; the dissepiment remains membranaceous, 

 but the placentae at length become hard and woody, and the cells 

 dry and capsular, while in Cacabus the pericarp, the placentae 

 and the dissepiment are all more or less membranaceous. The 

 fruit, though somewhat fragile, does not burst by an opercular 

 line, as in Hyoscyamus, because of the very gradual attenuation 

 and absorption of its epigynous gland into the substance of the 

 pericarpial membrane, not less than on account of the thickening 

 and indurescence of the dissepiment and placentae : for these rea- 

 sons, it does not open by a sharp horizontal line, as in that genus, 

 but remains a brittle, indehiscent putamen, with a tendency to 

 break by an irregular transverse line in its thinnest part. 



Thinogeton, Bth. Char. ampl. — Calyx tubulosus, 10-striatus 

 ad medium 5-partitus, laciniis acutissimis, erectis, subaequa- 

 libus, persistens et augescens. Corolla infundibuliformis, tubo 

 imo coarctato, dein gradatim ampliato, 15-nervio, limbo 5-fido, 

 lobis brevibus subinaequalibus, 3-angularibus. Stamina 5, in- 

 clusa, inaequalia, corolla 3-plo breviora ; filamenta in coarc- 

 tationem tubi inserta, hinc fornicata, erecta, gracilia ; anthercB 

 conniventes, oblongae, apicifixae, 2-loculares, loculis parallelc 

 adnatis, rima marginal! dehiscentibus. Ovarium ovatum, 2- 

 loculare, dissepimento tenui, placentis cruciformibus utrinque 

 adnatis, in locellis furcatis, carnosis, undique ovuligeris. Sty- 



^ lus leviter curvatus, filiformis, staminibus excedens. Stigma 

 spathulato-dilatatum, compressum, sub-2-labiatum. Baccaex- 

 sicca, intra calycem auctum vesiciformem, venoso-reticulatum, 

 10-costatum inclusa, subglobosa, cortice coriaceo, superne cras- 

 siore, inferne subfragili, evalvato, 2-locularis, placentis fur- 

 catis coriaceis, seminibus plurimis gerentibus. Seminn corn- 



