4A: Mr. J. Miers on the genus Saracha. 
nia, Capsicum, &c. on the one hand, and Witheringia and Bra- 
chistus on the other. In all these instances there exists but little 
difference in the structure of the flower, the principal distinctive 
features being the inclosure of the berry in a greatly enlarged and 
ventricose calyx in Physalis and Withania, another structure of 
fruit in Capsicum, and a more fruticose habit and different inflores- 
cence in Witheringia and Brachistus. In Saracha the inflorescence 
is axillary and umbellate, the number of radiating pedicels upon 
one single peduncle varying from 2 to 8: in Physalis the flowers 
are always solitary in each axil, upon a lengthened peduncle ; and 
in Witheringia, as I have limited that genus (ante, p. 145), the 
flowers, though more numerous, are also upon simple peduncles : 
in this case however the inflorescence appears to be somewhat 
more complex, owing to several flowers growing out of each axil 
at successive periods, so that they are seen in various stages of 
development, from the nascent bud to the perfected fruit; but 
the true normal condition is that of a solitary pedunculated 
flower, as is frequently observed in the dichotomous axils, the 
other flowers commonly aggregated with it in many of the axils 
being in fact nothmg more than a shortened and dwarf form of 
an axillary flowering branchlet, which is often seen m a more 
lengthened state of development. This is distinctly shown in the 
figure of Witheringia, plate 35, ‘ Illust. South Am. Plants.’ In 
Physalis the corolla is generally campanulate, with an almost 
entire pentangular border, rarely 5-lobed ; in Witheringia the tube 
is very short, the border patent and cleft nearly to the base into” 
five equal oblong acute segments, while in Saracha the corolla 
is contracted at ite base into a short tube, and suddenly spreads 
above into a border quite rotate, which is pentangular or half 
cleft into five lobes. In the latter genus the stamens are gene- 
rally slender and distinct at their origin, bemg simply inserted 
at the base of the tube of the corolla; in Witheringia, Capsicum, 
and in several species of Solanum, they spring, as in Hebecladus, 
from as many triangular expansions, sometimes separated by 
small distinct intervals, at others almost or wholly united mto an 
annular ring adnate to ‘the tube a little above its base: in Withe- 
ringia these processes are most distinctly developed ; in Saracha 
the same occurs in a greater or less degree, but they are gene- 
rally more separated and completely free, arising from the mar- 
ginal base of the tube; in Physalis these expansions are quite 
adnate with the tube. In Saracha, as in Hebecladus, the berry 
is supported by the persistent calyx, which although more or less 
expanding in size with the growth of the fruit always remains 
rotate, not vesicular and inclosing the berry as in Physalis, Ni- 
candra and some other genera. In Saracha, as in these genera, 
and also as in Witheringia, the placente are fleshy and altogether 
