444 Mr. J. Miers on the genus Saracha. 



nia, Capsicum^ &c. on the one hand, and Witheringia and Bra- 

 chistus on the other. In all these instances there exists but little 

 difference in the structure of the flower, the principal distinctive 

 features being the inclosure of the berry in a greatly enlarged and 

 ventricose calyx in Physalis and Withania, another structure of 

 fruit in Capsicum, and a more fruticose habit and different inflores- 

 cence in Witheringia and Brachistu^. In Saracha the inflorescence 

 is axillary and umbellate, the number of radiating pedicels upon 

 one single peduncle varying from 2 to 8 : in Physalis the flowers 

 are always solitary in each axil, upon a lengthened peduncle ; and 

 in Witheringia, as I have limited that genus {ante, p. 145), the 

 flowers, though more numerous, are also upon simple peduncles : 

 in this case however the inflorescence appears to be somewhat 

 more complex, owing to several flowers growing out of each axil 

 at successive periods, so that they are seen in various stages of 

 development, from the nascent bud to the perfected fruit ; but 

 the true normal condition is that of a solitary pedunculated 

 flower, as is frequently observed in the dichotomous axils, the 

 other flowers commonly aggregated with it in many of the axils 

 being in fact nothing more than a shortened and dwarf form of 

 an axillary flowering branchlet, which is often seen in a more 

 lengthened state of development. This is distinctly shown in the 

 figure of Witheringia, plate 35, ^ Illust. South Am. Plants.' In 

 Physalis the corolla is generally campanulate, with an almost 

 entire pentangular border, rarely 5-lobed ; in Witheringia the tube 

 is very short, the border patent and cleft nearly to the base into 

 five equal oblong acute segments, while in Saracha the corolla 

 is contracted at its base into a short tube, and suddenly spreads 

 above into a border quite rotate, which is pentangular or half 

 cleft into five lobes. In the latter genus the stamens are gene- 

 rally slender and distinct at their origin, being simply inserted 

 at the base of the tube of the corolla ; in Witheringia, Capsicum, 

 and in several species of Solanum, they spring, as in Hebecladus, 

 from as many triangular expansions, sometimes separated by 

 small distinct intervals, at others almost or wholly united into an 

 annular ring adnate to the tube a little above its base : in Withe- 

 ringia these processes are most distinctly developed ; in Saracha 

 the same occurs in a greater or less degree, but they are gene- 

 rally more separated and completely free, arising from the mar- 

 ginal base of the tube ; in Physalis these expansions are quite 

 adnate with the tube. In Saracha, as in Hebecladus, the berry 

 is supported by the persistent calyx, which although more or less 

 expanding in size with the growth of the fruit always remains 

 rotate, not vesicular and inclosing the berry as in Physalis, Ni- 

 candra and some other genera. In Saracha, as in these genera, 

 and also as in Witheringia, the placentae are fleshy and altogether 



