Mr. J. Miers on the genus Physalis. 35 



The habit of this species is somewhat different from the pre- 

 ceding, the branchlets being much longer, straighter and more 

 slender ; the leaves are also larger and more linear, being 4 lines 

 long by | line broad, and after their fall the axils do not become 

 enlarged by callous knots, as occurs in the two other species ; 

 the peduncle is 4 lines long; the calyx, 5 lines in length, is 

 more funnel-shaped, and divided nearly halfway down into five 

 acute teeth ; the corolla is 9 lines long, spreading above to a 

 diameter of 6 lines, with a border of five short lobes, and is appa- 

 rently of a pale yellow or whitish colour ; both it and the calyx 

 as well as the peduncle, the stem and the leaves are thickly 

 clothed with short glandular pubescent down: the style, thickened 

 at its apex, is considerably farther exserted than the stamens : 

 the berry, closely invested by the calyx, i3 globular, with a conical 

 apex, and is 5 lines in diameter*. 



3. Phrodus nodosus (n. sp.) ; — fruticosus, ramulis nodoso-flexu- 

 osis, subadscendentibus ; foliis fasciculatis, spathulato-linea- 

 ribus, carnosis, eveniis, superne canaliculars, imo callo tumido 

 persistente suffultis, axillis hinc demum nodosis : corolla ob- 

 scuriore, calyce campanulato duplo longiore, staminibus vix 

 exsertis ; stylo istis multo longiore. — Coquimbo, v. s. in herb. 

 Hook, et Lindl. (Bridges, no. 1333). 



The habit of this plant is intermediate between the two former, 

 the branches being flexuose and knotty as in the first species ; its 

 leaves are similar in size and shape to those of P. Bridgesii, but 

 the agglomerated persistent callous bases of the leaves, after they 

 have fallen, give to the branches, which are more flexuose and 

 crooked, the same knotty appearance as in P. microphylla, a cha- 

 racter quite wanting in the second species f- 



Physalis. 



Having spoken so frequently of this genus in relation to other 

 approximate genera, it is desirable that its limits should be de- 

 fined with more accuracy than heretofore. Its distinction from 

 Saracha has been already marked by its inflorescence offering 

 always a solitary axile flower, by its greatly increased vesicular 

 reticulated calyx in fruit wholly inclosing the berry, and by its 

 more deeply campanular and less rotate corolla with a border not 

 so deeply cleft. In its enlarged vesicular calyx it offers much 

 analogy with the genera Nicandra, Cacabus, Thinogeton, Ani- 

 sodus, Withania and Hypnoticum, but the former has a longer 



* This species will be figured in plate 41 of the ' lllust. South Amer. 

 Plants.' 

 f This plant will be shown in plate 42 B. of the same work. 



3* 



