298 Bibliographical Notices. 



established by Loureiro, and now consisting of eleven species, of 

 which a synopsis is here given. It comprehends all the Asiatic PrO' 

 teacecs at present known. 



The nineteenth and twentieth articles relate to two species of 

 Rhododendrum, of which Dr. Blume had formed a genus under the 

 name of Vireya. Mr. Bennett states, however, that they do not 

 differ in any respect from the former genus. The first described, 

 Rhod. Javanicum, is intimately related to Rhod. Ponticum, but has 

 larger and more showy flowers ; its flowers indeed are the largest in 

 the genus. The second, Rhod. retusum, belongs to the same division 

 of the genus with Rhod. ferrugineum. In describing them Mr. Ben- 

 nett speaks of " what is usually regarded as a capitate stigma as an 

 indusium surrounding the true stigmata, which are distinct from each 

 other, equal in number to the cells of the ovarium, partially or wholly 

 adherent to the inner surface of the indusium, sometimes slightly 

 projecting beyond it, and generally a little capitate;" and states that 

 Mr. Brown long since showed him " that a similar organization, 

 more or less obvious, occurs very generally in the family, demon- 

 strating it more particularly in Salaxis, and such of the other Heaths 

 as are commonly described as having a large peltate stigma." This 

 structure he regards as bearing an obvious relation to the more 

 strongly marked indusium of Goodenoviecc. 



In the next article Mr. Bennett characterizes a new genus oi Ascle- 

 piadea, nearly related to Hoy a, but differing from it in some striking, 

 if not very essential, characters. To this genus he gives the name of 

 Cyrtoceras, and derives its principal distinctive character " from the 

 great comparative elongation of the whole of its sexual apparatus, 

 which in Hoya is as remarkably depressed." We may add that it is 

 the Centrostemma of M. Decaisne, since published in the ' Annales 

 des Sciences Naturelles,' Nouv. S^rie, torn. ix. p. 271. 



In the twenty- second article Mr. Bennett describes a species of 

 the genus Argostemma of Dr. Wallich, which M. De CandoUe has 

 placed in immediate apposition with Ophiorhiza, but which Mr. Ben- 

 nett considers, in accordance with a suggestion of Mr. Brown, to 

 be much more closely related to Hoffmannia. He enters into a de- 

 tailed examination of the more remarkable characters of the genus, 

 and gives a synopsis of the species at present known, twenty-one in 

 number, of which thirteen are here characterized for the first time. 



The twenty-third article offers a striking instance of one of those 

 fortunate recoveries of lost plants, which sometimes reward the labours 

 of the botanist far more agreeably than the discovery of new. It 

 relates to the Linnsean genus Lerchea, which having entirely escaped 



