~ 
cies known, bab é the labours of Jack, Horsfield, Wallich, he Griffith, 
have now increased the number totwelve, t val- 
uable aceount of Cyrtandrez, just published, by Robert Brown, and itis 
probable that the number yet to be discovered in the Indian archi- 
pelago is very large. 
The memoir just referred to, drawn up by Mr. Brown on the occa- 
sion of describing one of the Cyrtandrez, figured in Horsfield’s Plante 
Javanice Rariores, besides several important observations on some 
obscure points of structural botany, contains a most valuable review 
of the limits and affinities of the group, and an enumeration of genera 
with accurate and concise characters. He clearly shews that those 
botanists who have endeavoured to establish the American Gesneriacez 
and the Asiatic Cyrtandracee as two distinct natural orders, have 
relied upon characters which in some cases have proved vague or falla- 
cious, in others not. to agree with the geographical distinctions which 
they had served to establish. Indeed, in one instance, a Mexican plant, 
supposed to be a distinct genus of American Gesneriacee, (the Klugia 
of Schlechtendal,) turns out upon examination to be but a species of 
the East Indian Cyrtandreous genus Glossanthus. He, therefore, 
unites the whole into one natural order under the name of Gesne- 
‘riacee, divided into three tribes; the Gesneriee with an adherent 
ovarium and albuminous seeds; the Besleriex, with a free ovarium and 
the seeds of Gesneriee; and Cyrtandrex, also with a free ovarium, 
but little or no albumen to the seeds. 
The order, thus formed, it must be admitted,: is a very natural one, 
differing botanically from the extensive order of Scrophulariacez 
by the ovary always consisting of a single cell instead of two. In 
appearance they are usually much handsomer, having seldom that 
weedy look peculiar to a large number of Scrophulariacez, and the 
flowers being very frequently scarlet, or a rich purple, or blue, colours 
very uncommon in Scrophulariacez, and even where they are pale or 
whitish, their large size often compensates for their want of colour. 
They are therefore, in general, most desirable acquisitions, for though 
they mostly require stove heat, they are either herbs or low shrubs, or 
at any rate will produce their flowers before they attain any great 
height, and few good collections are now without some species of 
Gesnera, Gloxinia, Trevirana, or Streptocarpus, although by far the 
greater number, and many of the most conspicuous, are © only known 
as ai by dried specimens, 
