29S G. King and D. Prain — Descriptions of some New Plants [No. 2, 



in having the calyx-tube enveloped by the expanded cupular apex of 

 the pedicel. With reference to this last character the name Besmogyne 

 (8c(T/xo's, a bandage ; yvvfj) has been applied to the plant. We feel in- 

 clined to think that Agapetes and Pentapterygium, which are distin- 

 guished solely by the absence from the former, the presence in the 

 latter, of ribs or wings to the calyx, are hardly separable as genera. If 

 these two could be united our plant would then be the type of a section 

 Besmogyne within this enlarged Agapetes. But seeing that in the three 

 most authoritative treatises on the genera of plants — the Genera Plan- 

 tarum, the Histoire des Plantes, and the Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien, — 

 Messrs Bentham and Hooker, Baillon, and Drude have considered it 

 necessary to keep Pentapterygium apart from Agapetes, we are constrained 

 to give oar Besmogyne, at least for the present, the rank of a genus; 

 it differs more markedly from either Agapetes or Pentapterygium, 

 than these two differ from each other. The undivided calyx-limb, 

 at first sight a more remarkable feature than the ball and socket 

 arrangement at the apex of the pedicel is not really so important a 

 difference as it appears ; the species immediately preceding this 

 {Agapetes Pottingeri Prain) stands intermediate as regards calyx-limb 

 between this and the other Agapetes since the limb though 5-lobed at 

 the margin is there also campanulate and gamophyllus below. 



Dr. Stapf who has examined and kindly compared one of our 

 specimens at Kew agrees with us in thinking that so long as Pentaptery- 

 gium is kept apart from Agapetes our plant had better receive generic 

 rank. If Pentapterygium could only be reduced to Agapetes the present 

 species would probably have to be included in this enlarged genus as 

 Agapetes Besmogyne King & Prain. 



PRIMULACE^E. 



24. Lysimachta evalvis Wall, in Roxb. Flor. Ind. ed. Carey 8f 

 Wall. ii. 27 var. grandifolia Prain ; folia 6 poll, longa, 2*25 poll, lata; 

 pcdunculi 2 poll, longi. 



In montibus Kachin, apud Neochawng 2,500 p. s. m., Pottinger ! 

 This may prove, when more completely represented, to be a distinct 

 species. 



SOLANACEA 



25. Solanum ferox Linn. Sp. PL ed. ii. 267 var. inermis Prain ; 

 omnino nisi aculeis absentibus cum 8. feroce convenit. 



In montibus Kachin nuncupatis, Kingii mercenar. ! 

 The collector's note is " Moima villge ; flowers white." There is 

 not a character whereby the plant can be separated from S. ferox except 



