184 Scientific Intelligence. 



Datura Metel is easily distinguished by its pubescence and its reflected 

 fruit, but its native country is also doubtful. It seems to be indigenous in 

 intertropical America. — Bibliotheque Univ. de Geneve, Nov. 1854. 



New Himalayan Genera. — The following are two of the most remark- 

 able new genera that have hitherto presented themselves to us during the 

 examination of our Indian Herbarium. Their very remarkable structure 

 has induced us to take the earliest opportunity of making them known, 

 believing, as we do, that they are peculiarly interesting both in a struc- 

 tural and systematic point of view. The genus Maddenia, in particular, 

 is quite exceptional in its order, from presenting apparently normally 

 dimorphous flowers, a feature that has not hitherto been recorded amongst 

 Rosacece. 



Diplarche, which is an undoubted Ericeous plant, differs from the 

 majority of the family in the longitudinal dehiscence of the anthers, 

 and from all in the two series of stamens, of which the outer or upper 

 series is epipetalous, and the lower sometimes epipetalous, but more 

 frequently hypogynous. 



In the name Maddenia we are desirous of commemorating the botanical 

 services of Major E. Madden, of the Bengal Artillery, a well-known and 

 most valuable contributor to our knowledge of Himalayan plants. 



We have named the genus Diplarche, in allusion to the two series 

 of stamens, which is its most remarkable character. Its nearest affinity 

 is certainly the little Loiseleuria procumbens (Azalea, Lin.) of the 

 Scottish mountains, which is also a native of the Arctic regions, and 

 of the alps of Northern and Southern Europe, Siberia and North 

 America, but does not inhabit the Himalaya. With this, Diplarche 

 agrees in habit, and in the dehiscence of the anthers, but differs in the 

 alternate leaves, and many other important characters of inflorescence and 

 flower. The dehiscence of the capsule is normally septicidal, though not 

 obviously so at first, owing to the dorsal portion of the valves breaking 

 away from the septa, which remain attached to the axis of the capsule as 

 thin scarious membranes. The ripe capsule appears to have two integu- 

 ments, the outer coriaceous coat of each valve separating from the inner 

 or more crustaceous one, whose margins alone are in flexed. 



It has been remarked long ago, by De Candolle and others, that Eri- 

 cew are intermediate between Calycifiorm and Corollifioraz; and though 

 the present genus certainly tends to favour this view, it does not in our 

 opinion throw any further light upon the position of the great order, or 

 rather alliance, of Ericeos. These great groups of Jussieu are no doubt, 

 to a great extent, artificial, but in the present state of systematic botany 

 they are essential aids to determining the positions of the many Natural 

 Orders they include : for this purpose we believe them to be the most 

 valuable that have been suggested hitherto. — J. D. Hooker and T. Thom- 

 son, in Hooker's Journal of Botany, Dec. 1854. 



Plants in the Crimea. — In the " Gardener's Chronicle" for December 

 16, 1854, the following account is given of some of the vegetable produc- 

 tions of the south-western portion of the Crimea, and their existence seems 

 to indicate a winter climate not more severe than that of Hampshire or 

 Sussex. 



Every gardener knows that in hard winters, even near London, Cis- 

 tuses of all kinds are killed ; but we learn from Marschall v. Bieberstein 

 that Cistus creticus is not uncommon (minime rarus) on the hills of the 

 S. Crimea overlooking the Black Sea. Pallas also relates that the Manna 

 Ash, a tender tree near London, inhabits the warm southern dales ; there- 

 fore the winters to which these are exposed cannot be worse than those 

 round London. The same remark applies to the dyer's Sumach, Rhus 



