200 VOYJk^E TN SEARCJt 



plant is highly aftringent : there is no doubt that 

 it would be ufeful in medicine ; the gummy prin- 

 ciple with which it abounds muft facilitate its 

 mixture with our humours, and make the ufe of it 

 preferred o a great many other aftringents. 



Among the beautiful plants that I then ga- 

 thered, was a very remarkable compound flower, 

 which has not till now been noticed by any natu- 

 ralift ; t forms a new genus, which I call richea, 

 from the name of Citizen Riche, one of the na- 

 turalifls of the expedition. This learned man 

 has fallen a victim to his love for the fciences, 

 after having, in a ftate of confumption already far 

 advanced, made a long and fatiguing voyage, in 

 which he confulted his zeal more than his 

 ftrength. 



This new genus is naturally clafled in the third 

 feclion of the cinaroccphala: (JuJJf. Gen. Plant.). 



The common calyx is compofed of feveral 

 obtufe leaflets, fcariofe at their fummit, of equal 

 length, and arranged in a Angle row; it compre- 

 hends feveral diftincl calyxes, each borne on a 

 very fhort peduncle ; all thefe little calyxes are 

 compofed of five or fix leaflets, containing five 

 or fix florets, which are all hermaphrodite, and 

 each provided with a fcale almoft the whole of 

 length. 



The florets are inflated in their upper part, 

 end are in five equal divjfions. 



Five diftincl filaments, attached to the tube 



of 



