APPENDIX. No. V. 48:^ 



the waiit of tendrils. Adanson himself, indeed, notices what he considers a 

 new species of Gloriosa in Senegal,* but he says nothing of the colour of it"; 

 flowers, which he would hnrdly have omitted, had they been blue : that his 

 plant, however, was not without tendrils, may be inferred from their entering 

 into the character he afterwards gave of tlie genus,-f as well as from M. La- 

 niarck''s account of liis variety /3 of G. snperba,j which he seems to have 

 described from Adanson's specimens. And as no one has since pretended to 

 have seen a species of this genus, either with blue flowers, or leaves witli- 

 out tendrils, G. nhnplcx, which has long been considered as doubtful, may 

 be safely left out of all future editions of the Species Plantarum. As the sup- 

 posed G. superba of this coast, however, seems to differ from the Indian plant 

 in the gi-eater length and more equal diameter of its capsule, it may possibly be 

 a distinct species, though at present I am inclined to consider it as onl}' a variety. 

 Splienodea zeylan'ica Gaert. I have compared this plant from Congo with 

 specimens from India, Java, China, Cochincliina,§ Gambia, Demerary, and 

 the island of Trinidad. 



I was at one tinie inclined to believe, that Sphenoclea might be considered 

 as an attendant on Rice, whicli it very generally accompanies, and with which 

 I supposed it to have been originally imported froni India into the various 

 countries where it is found. This hypothesis may still account for its existence 

 ill the rice fields of Egypt ;|| but as it now appears have to been observed 

 in countries where there is no reason to believe that rice has ever been cul- 

 tivated, the conjecture must be abandoned. 



Hibiscus tiliaceus L. agrees with the plant of India, except in a very shght 

 difference in the acumen of the leaf; but the specimens from America have 

 their outer calyx proportionally longer. 



S'lAa periplodfoUa L. corresponds with American specimens ; those in Her- 

 mann's herbarium, from which the species was estabhshed, have a longer 

 acumen to the leaf: in other respects I perceive no difference. 



* Xouvelle espoce de Methonica, Hist. Nat. du Senegal, p. 137. 

 + Mendoni, Fam. dcs Plant. 2. p. 48. 

 + Enrt/c. Method. Botan. 4. p. 134. 



\ Rapinia herbacea of the Flora Cochinchinensis (p. 127) is certainly Sphenocles 

 zot/lan:ca, as appears by a specimen sent to Sir Joseph Banks by Loureiro himself. 



II Delile Flor. Egypt, illust. in op. cit. 



