468 Mr. J. Miers on the genera Hyoscyamus and Physochlsena. 



with the gland in question, this being evident upon making a 

 longitudinal section just before the ripening of the fruit. 



Dr. Putterlick has given in Nees's 'Gen. PI. Germ/ a very good 

 series of illustrated analytical dissections of the flower and seed 

 of Hyoscyamus, but in many respects these details do not agree 

 with the structure, as I have observed it ; for instance, the pla- 

 cental are represented as being cruciform with the dissepiments, 

 to which they are attached by a central axile line, becoming 

 lunately expanded in the middle of each cell as in Physalis ; I 

 have found the placentae on the contrary to be thick and fleshy, 

 both closely adnate with the dissepiment, forming one cylindrical 

 column that fills the greater portion of the central space of the 

 ovarium ; the embryo is also shown too thick in proportion, and 

 the cotyledons are not incumbent as there exhibited, but accum- 

 bent after the manner almost universally seen in this family : 

 some of the figures there truly represent the corolla as having an 

 imbricated aestivation, which however is erroneously described in 

 the text, as in the descriptions of all other authors, as being pli- 

 cated : there is no indication there represented of the remarkable 

 apical gland in the summit of the ovarium. 



I have annexed the specific character of a species which I 

 found growing in Kew Gardens, and which appears nowhere 

 given. 



Hyoscyamus, Tournef. — Calyx urceolato-tubulosus, 10-nervis, 

 5-dentatus, dentibus erectis demum rigidis, persistens et au- 

 gescens. Corolla infundibuliformi-campanulata, obliqua, imo 

 constricta, limbi obliqui lobis 5, brevibus, obtusiusculis, subin- 

 sequalibus, patentibus, ssepe hinc semi-fissa, sestivatione im- 

 bricata. Stamina 5, imo corollse inserta, inclusa, rarius ex- 

 serta, declinata ; filamenta imo fornicata et puberula, superne 

 subulata et glabra ; antherce 2-loculares, loculis arete adnatis, 

 longitudinaliter intus dehiscentibus, imo connectivi dorsalis 

 articulatim afnxse. Ovarium conicum, disco hypogyno fere 

 obsoleto impositum, glandula apicali magna crasso-carnosa sig- 

 , natum, 2-loculare, pluri-ovulatum, placentis valde incrassatis 

 dissepimento utrinque adnatis. Stylus exsertus, apice incurvus. 

 Stigma capitato-bilobum. Capsula urceolata, submembranacea, 

 calyce aucto reticulato-coriaceo dentibus pungentibus recon- 

 dita, 2-locularis, supra medium horizontaliter ruptilis, oper- 

 culo deciduo, cupuliformi, crasso, corneo. Semina reniformi- 

 ovata, compressa, testa scrobiculata, hilo prominulo cavo 

 in sinu laterali. Embryo in albumen carnosum teres, subspi- 

 ralis, radicula paulo incurvata, ad angulum basalem spectante, 

 cotyledonibus semiteretibus sequilonga. — Herbse Gerontogem 

 pubescentes, scepius viscosce et olidce, radice perennante; folia 



