Mr, J« Miers on, the genus Witheringia. 143 , 
to be scanty of the very remarkable character that distinguishes 
most of its species, viz. the remarkable growth and extreme in- 
flation of the calyx in fruit; and so also in the approximate ge- 
nus Saracha, individuals are sometimes observed, where, com- 
bined with a calyx not sensibly increasing in size, they present 
a corolla deeply campanulate, marked with large coloured spots, 
and a pentangular border so characteristic of Physalis: in these 
equivocal points of structure, it appears to me we may call in the 
aid of their general habit in order to determine the genus to 
which they should be referred, for in Physalis the inflorescence 
will be found to be universally 1-flowered in each axil, while in 
Saracha it is as uniformly more or less distinctly umbellate. 
Thus likewise in Acnistus, a genus with Cestrum-like flowers, we 
have a very variable length of the tube of the corolla, which in 
A, umbellatus is hardly distinguishable from the section Che- 
nesthes of Iochroma ; while in A. arborescens (the original Cestrum 
cauliflorum of Jacquin, Hort. Schcenb. tab. 325) the tube is so 
short as to leave no possible distinction between this genus and 
that called Witheringia by Kunth, as will be hereafter demon- 
strated. 3 
Now, as will be hereafter shown, neither Witheringia so- 
lanacea, nor the Columbian plant here alluded to as being so 
_ closely allied to it, can be distinguished from Saracha ; they have 
both a 5-partite calyx, a rotate corolla deeply cleft, stamens ari- 
sing from triangular expansions originating at the base of its 
short tube, and the fruit is a pisiform berry supported on a calyx 
that does not materially increase in size ; the peduncle is bifur- 
cate, and forms a 2-flowered umbel as in many species of Sara- 
cha; and to make this analogy still more complete, although the 
stem is somewhat lignescent and perennial at base as in some 
species of this last-mentioned genus, their branches are in like 
manner herbaceous, and L’Heritier describes Witheringia sola- 
nacea as possessing the same kind of large tuberose root as in 
the Saracha jaliomata, Schlect.: for all which reasons I have no 
hesitation in referring all these plants to one genus. 
Of the fruticose species hitherto included in Witheringia, there 
are evidently two distinct groups, the several Columbian species 
enumerated by Kunth, and the Brazilian species of Martius: the 
former are distinguished by having extra-axillary fascicles, gene- 
rally of numerous, sometimes of very few flowers, always upon 
simple peduncles, and not umbellate as in Hebecladus ; the calyx 
is always distinctly tubular, with an almost entire margin, and 
five very minute distant teeth, not 5-partite as observed in Hede- 
eladus, Saracha, and Witheringia picta; the corolla is tubular, 
with a 5-partite border, not so decidedly long and infundibuli- 
form as in Hebecladus and Acnistus; the berry is small, seldom 
