308 Prof. Don's Description of a new Genus of Plants. 



affinities, and connected, as they are, on the one hand with the symmetrical 

 families Cohœaceœ, Polemoniaceœ, and even Jpoci/neœ, and on the other with 

 the unsymmetrical ones of Ci/rtandracece, Acanthuceœ, Pedulineœ, Sesameœ, 

 and Scrophulurineœ, we need not be surprised to find amongst them genera 

 with perfectly symmetrical flowers. 



The generic name refers to the peculiar situation of the leaves and flowers 

 below the spines, and is compounded of xaru, infra, and (pgocKrog, munitns. Its 

 enterprising discoverer is conuneraorated in the specific name. 



EXPLANATION OF TAB. XXII. 



Fig. 1 . Upper portion of a stem of Catopliractes Jlexandri. 

 Fig. 2. Tube of the corolla laid open, with the stamens. 

 Fig. 3. Pistillum ; all of the natural size. 



]\7ote, — Since the preceding account was read before the Society, I have 

 been fovoured by Mr. Burchell with flowering specimens of two species of his 

 remarkable genus Rliigozion, namely R. spinosum and obovatum, and by Mr. 

 Bentham with a specimen of the latter species, with two separate fruit. These 

 plants agree well with the present in habit, but the calyx is short, wide, and 

 campanulate, with an equal limb, neither cloven, nor spathaceous ; the corolla 

 has a very short tube, much narrower than the calyx, with the faux much di- 

 lated, ventricose, and campanulate; the stamens are unequal in length, two 

 of them being longer than the rest. The margin of the leaves in all the spe- 

 cies of Rhigozum hitherto known is perfectly entire. From these differences, 

 therefore, it is evident that Catophractes must either constitute a distinct ge- 

 nus, or a very marked section if united to RJiigozum. It clearly forms the 

 transition from that genus to the pentandrous simple-leaved Spathodeœ. 



