Mr. J. Miers on several genera hitherto placed in Solanaceae. 163 



nearly as possible within the limits prescribed by Mr. Robert 

 Brown in his ' Prod.^ [lac. cit.)j viz. to those genera with a mo- 

 nopetalous corolla, with a 5-, rarely 4-partite border, even in ex- 

 ceptional cases nearly regular and equal, the borders of whose 

 lobes are always valvate or induplicato-valvate in aestivation; 

 epipetalous stamens, alternate with and equal to the number of 

 the lobes, the fifth being seldom shorter and still more rarely 

 sterile, anthers always bursting by longitudinal slits or pores ; 

 an ovarium most generally 2-celled, rarely 3- to 5-locular, with a 

 simple style, a bilobed or clavate stigma often hollow ; a fruit 

 either capsular or baccate, and albuminous seeds with a terete 

 embryo, straight, and more or less curved in a nearly annular 

 form, or somewhat spiral, the radicle in all cases pointing to the 

 basal angle of the seed, and turned away to some short distance 

 from the hilum, which is generally lateral and marginal, rarely 

 almost basal. 



The Scrophulariacea I would also propose should be confined 

 to those genera that possess a tubular corolla more or less curved 

 and irregular, with a 4- or 5 -partite border generally unequal 

 and bilabiate, the lobes rarely equal, but in every case with a de- 

 cidedly imbricate aestivation ; stamens 2 or 4, didynamous, seldom 

 with a fifth, which is very rarely fertile, often only rudimentary : 

 an ovarium, most generally bilocular ; a simple style, with a stigma 

 more or less bilabiate or bilobed ; the fruit almost always cap- 

 sular (in very few instances baccate), 2-locular, rarely more-celled, 

 bursting in various ways, with central placentae adnate to the 

 dissepiment, and an embryo enveloped in albumen but little 

 curved, generally with the radicle pointing to a basal hilum * ; in 

 one solitary instance [Campy lanthus) the embryo is however peri- 

 spherically curved. In this very natural family, although the 

 floral leaves are often alternate, the cauline leaves are most gene- 

 rally opposite, which occurs only accidentally in SolanacecBy and 

 the origin of the inflorescence is strictly axillary. Thus limited, 

 they form a very distinct natural order. 



The intermediate group, which I now propose as a suborder, 

 under the name of Atropines, or as a new order, under that of 

 Atropacea, will consist of genera having a tubular persistent 

 calyx, more or less deeply divided, a hypogynous tubular corolla, 

 with the tube more or less plicated in bud, and with a border 

 generally divided into 5 lobes slightly unequal, but which are 



* According to Mr. Bentham's authority, DeCand. ' Prod.' x. p. 186, and 

 a statement positively affirmed by most botanists, but one which, it appears 

 to me, must be received with some modification ; for in the seemingly truth- 

 ful analyses of the genera figured by Nees v. Esenbeck, * Gen. PI. Germ.,' 

 the radicle is shown as in SolanacecB, not pointing directly to the hilum. See 

 plates of Erlnus, Veronica, Wulfenia, Odontites, Euphrasia, Barisia, Pedi- 

 cularis, and Alectorolophus {Rhinanthus). 



11* 



