306 P>''^'f- Don's Description of a new Genti.s of Plants 



three has six teeth, and both the expanded flowers have a six-cleft limb ; one 

 of tliese is furnished with seven stamens, and the other, as well as the bud, 

 with six. The stamens are erect, nearly equal in length, and partly project 

 beyond the tube of the corolla. The flowers are therefore completely regular, 

 and, from the circumstance of the two expanded flowers and the bud having 

 a six-l()l»ed limb to the corolla, and being fm-nished with six or sometimes even 

 with seven stamens, we may justly conclude that the normal number is really 

 six in this plant ; but had there been only a single flower, I should have re- 

 garded the excess of lobes and stamens as an accidental occurrence, and the 

 normal number as five, as in those species oï Spatliudea which have the fifth 

 stamen perfectly developed, and the flower consequently pentandrous. 

 The following are the characters of this new genus : 



CATOPIIRACTES. 



Si/.sf. Linn. Hexandria Moxogvnia. 

 Ord. Nat. BiGNO.xiACE.E. Br. 



Character Esscntialis. 



Ca/t/x spathaceus, hinc fissus, inde G-dentatus. Corolla infundibuliformis : 



I'unho G-lobo, patenti, œquali. Stamina 6, raro /, subéequalia, exserta. 



Antherarani loculi paralleli, e medio sursum connati. Ovarium abbre- 



viatum, conicum, biloculare ? 

 Frutex (namaquensis) erectus, .spinosns. Folia fasclculata, simpUcia, pemii- 



nerria, crenato-scrrata. Flores latérales, subsessiles, speciosi, albi. 



Descrij/tio. 



Frnte.v erectus, rigidus, spinosus, orgyalis, basi multidivisus. Caales plures, 

 virgati, simpliciusculi, obsolete tetragoni, cortice spadiceo, pube stellata 

 brevissimfi, preesertim apicem versus, dense canescenti-tomentosi. Spinae 

 (gemmse primariee mutatse) supra-axillares, decussato-oppositie, subu- 

 latpe, validse, horizontaliter porrectse, vix poUicares. Folia priniaria non- 

 diun vidi ; secundaria in ramulis parCim evolutis fasciculata, simplicia, pe- 

 tiolata, ovalia v. cuneata, retusa, levitèrque emarginata, grosse aequalit^r- 

 que crenato-serrata, coriacea, semipollicaria, pcnninervia, subtus costata. 



