306 Prof. Don's Description of a neiv Genus of Plants 



three has six teeth, and both the expanded flowers have a six-cleft limb ; one 

 of these is furnished with seven stamens, and the other, as well as the bud, 

 with six. The stamens are erect, nearly equal in length, and partly project 

 beyond the tube of the corolla. The flowers are therefore completely regular, 

 and, from the circumstance of the two expanded flowers and the bud having 

 a six-lobed litnb to the corolla, and being furnished with six or sometimes even 

 with seven stamens, we may justly conclude that the normal number is really 

 six in this plant ; but had there been only a single flower, I should have re- 

 garded the excess of lobes and stamens as an accidental occurrence, and the 

 normal number as five, as in those species of Spathodea which have the fifth 

 stamen perfectly developed, and the flower consequently pentandrous. 

 The following are the characters of this new genus : 



CATOPHRACTES. 



Syst. Linn. Hexandria Monogvnia. 



Ord. Nat. BiGNONiACE^. Br. 



Character Essentialis. 



Calyx spathaceus, hinc fissus, inde 6-dentatus. Corolla infundibuliformis : 



limho 6-lobo, patenti, sequali. Stamina 6, rar6 7, subsequalia, exserta. 



Antherarum loculi paralleli, e medio sursum connati. Ovarium abbre- 



viatum, conicum, biloculare ? 

 Frutex (namaquensis) erectus, spinosus. Folia fasciculata, simplicia, penni- 



nervia, crenato-serrata. Flores laterales, suhsessiles, speciosi, albi. 



Descriptio. 



Frutex erectus, rigidus, spinosus, orgyalis, basi multidivisus. Caules plures, 

 virgati, simpliciusculi, obsolete tetragoni, cortice spadiceo, pube stellata 

 brevissima, prsesertim apicem versus, densfe canescenti-tomentosi. Spinse 

 (gemmae primarise mutatse) supra-axillai-es, decussato-oppositee, subu- 

 latse, validee, horizontaliter porrectae, vix pollicares. Folia primaria non- 

 d^m vidi ; secundaria in ramulis pariim evolutis fasciculata, simplicia, pe- 

 tiolata, ovalia v. cuneata, retusa, levitferque emarginata, grossfe sequalit^r- 

 que crenato-serrata, coriacea, seraipoUicaria, penninervia, subtus costata, 



