OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 269 



The next genus of Cruciferse to be noticed is Farsetia, 

 a fragment of the original species of which is in the collec- 

 tion. There are also several specimens of a plant, found 

 in the desert, supposed to be new, and which, though with- 

 out flowers, and considerably different in the form of its 

 stigma, I am inclined, from the resemblance in habit, in 

 pubescence, in sihcula, in seeds, and especially from the 

 exact similarity in the structure of the septum, to refer to 

 the same genus. -^ 



As the introduction of the structure of the dissepiment [217 

 into the generic characters of Cruciferse is now proposed 

 for the first time, and as I believe that its texture and ap- 

 pearance should always be attended to in constituting 

 genera in this family of plants, I shall here offer a few 

 remarks respecting it. 



According to the particular view which I briefly but 

 distinctly pubhshed in 1818, and which M. De Candolle 

 first adopted in 1821, of the composition of the pistillura 

 in Cruciferae,^ the dissepiment in this family is necessarily 



1 FARSETIA. 



Farsetia. Turra, Farseiia, p. 5. Favsetise sp. Hort. Kew. ed. 2, vol. 4, p. 

 69. Be Cand. Syst. 2, p. 286. 



Chak. Gen. Calyx clausus, basi vix bisaccatus. Filamenla omuia edeii- 

 tula. Antherte lineares. Silicula ovalis v. oblonga, sessilis, valvis planius- 

 ciilis, loculis polyspermis (raro 1-2-spermis), funiculis liberis. Disaepimentum 

 uuiuerve, venosum. Semina marginata. Colyledones accumbentes. 



Herbse mffruticosa ramosa, pube bipartita ajipressa incana. Folia ink' 

 gerrima. E,acemi subspicati. 



Obs. Dissepimentum in omnibus exemplaribus utriusque speciei a nobis 

 visis completurn, sed in F. segyptiaca quandoque basi fenestratum, fide D. 

 Desfontaines. {Flor. Atlant. 2, tab. 160.) 



F. Kgyptiaca species unioa certa est, nam F. stylosa, cujus Acres ignoti, ob 

 stigmatis lobos patentes non absque hsesitatione ad lioc genus retuli. 



Faksetia.? dylosa, ramosissima, silioulis oblongis pclyspermis passimque 

 brevS ovalibus 1-2-spermis, stylo diametrum transversum siliculte subsequante, 

 stigmatis lobis patentibus. 



Obs. Exemplaria omnia fcliis destituta, sed illcrum cicatrices ni fallor 

 obvise. 



^ In a work published in 1810, the following passage, which has some re- 

 lation to this suDJect, occurs : — " Capsulas omnes plurilooulares e totidem thecis 

 conferruminatas esse, diversas solum modis gradibusque variis cohsesionis et 

 solubilitatis partium judico." {Frodr. Flor. Nov. Hall. l,p. 558.) This opinion, 

 however, respecting' the formation of multilocular ovaria, mightbe held, with- 

 out necessarily leading to the theory in question of the composition of the fruit 

 in Cruciferse, which I first distinctly stated in an essay on Compositse, read 



