182 Mr. J. Miers on several genera hitherto placed in Solanacee. 
rangement, but one objection presents itself which renders this 
conclusion somewhat unsatisfactory, and that is the peculiar habit 
of the only well-recognized species, Retzia spicata, which is dif- 
ferent from that of any Solanaceous or Atropaceous plant. Here 
the leaves are verticillate in fours, and the flowers are solitary 
and sessile in each axil, being supported by two bracts similar in 
size.and shape to the lobes of the calyx. The genus Solenostigma 
of Klotzsch, founded upon one of Zeyher’s African plants, and 
supposed to be identical with Retzia, was placed by that botanist 
in Stilbacee ; but the name would imply that the stigma is there 
hollow and tubular, while in Retzia it consists of two small linear 
divaricate segments ; hence it is probable that Klotzsch’s plant is 
very different from that of Thunberg. I may here observe how- 
ever, that this fact does not of itself invalidate their mutual affi- 
nity, for in the vast genus Solanum we meet with different spe- 
eies, some with a hollow tubular stigma, and others with bifid 
linear segments, exactly similar to the stigma of Retzia. The 
Polemonium campanuloides and P. roelloides of Thunberg have 
been referred to Retzia by Sprengel, G. Don and Dr. Walpers ; 
these plants have both alternate leaves, and if really species of 
that genus, they would tend to remove the doubts above expressed 
im regard to the place of Retzia in this natural order. Willdenow 
states (Syst. 1. 887) that the two species last alluded to, cannot 
belong to Polemonium, which has a trifid stigma; and he adds, 
that P. campanuloides has a bifid stigma as in Retzia. The Con- 
volvulus cenotheroides (Linn. fil.) is also said to be another species 
of this genus. The only facts wanting to confirm its place in the 
system are the position of its ovules and the structure of its seeds. 
Dr. Lindley, who has examined its ovarium, has observed that 
its ovules are very few, two (or four?) in each cell, artieulated 
with and suspended from the dissepiment by a large thickened 
funiculus, a character not at all conformable with the Atropacee 
or Solanacee, and one that would seem to remove this genus 
nearer to the Bruniacee, with which Retzia will be found to pos- 
sess many similar characters. For the present therefore we must 
hesitate in attaching Retzia to the Atropacee. 
The genus Lonchostoma of Wikstrém, placed by most botanists 
in Retziacee, offers, I find, many characters in common with Bru- 
niace@ : its sepals are united at the base by a membranaceous tube 
which closely invests the ovarium, if not almost adnate with it ; 
they are surrounded by bracts of equal size: it resembles Graven- 
horstia in having its petals combined into a funnel-shaped tube 
with a 5-partite border, the lobes of which are carinate and con- 
volutely imbricate in estivation ; the anthers, cordate at base, are 
nearly sessile in the mouth ; the style is divided halfway down and 
terminated by clavate stigmata; the ovarium, 2-celled, appears 
