perplexing to those who endeavour to determine the plant 
in any of these works; and which has actually led to 
its having been yery generally confounded by gardeners 
with canariense. 
A new genus has been carved from Hyprrtcum, by 
the title of Exopra, that includes the present species ; 
but seems to us one of those dismemberments of a well- 
characterized and consistent genus, which offer no equiva- 
lent for the disturbance of innovation. 
_ The present plant is native of Egypt, and was introduced 
in 1787, by M. Thouin. It is a dwarf brachiately branched 
shrub, seldom exceeding a foot in height, reminding one, as 
Linnzeus observes, of an Arenarta [Sandwort]. Branches 
spreading, round, younger ones leafy their whole length, 
decussately panicled, branchlets short axillary solitary, usu- 
ally minutely six-leaved with a single flower at the end of 
each. “Leaves decussated, spreading, sessile, glaucous, 
frosted, thick and somewhat fleshy, about two lines long, 
ovately elliptic, flat, pointed, veinless, not transparently 
ee as those of the genus commonly are, rather 
onger than the intervals between the pairs. #/owers small, 
yellow, upright. Calyx sessile between two opposite leaves 
of about half its own length; leaflets greenish yellow, usu- 
ally more or less stained with red, equal to the tubular 
portion of the corolla, connivent, persistent, ovate, convex, 
somewhat pointed, rigid, quite entire. Corolla campanu- 
late; transparently streaked, scarcely the third of an inch 
deep; petals spatulately oblong, converging by their wn- 
gues into a tube; lamina spreading and recurved, obtuse; 
unguis with a small raised linear-oblong longitudinal con- 
cave scale growing to the inside of the lowermost part. 
Stamens polyadelphous, in three sets, upright, a little higher 
than the tube of the corolla, the lower portion of the fila- 
ments of each set compressedly tubular for more than half 
the length: anthers yellow, roundish, facing inwards, 
Pistil pale, shorter than the stamineous pipes, ovate-oblong, 
threelobed-trigonal, corners rounded; styles 3, extremely 
short, continuous, divergent, terminated by the same 
number of convex papillary slightly wider stigmas. Cor- 
puscles 3, roundish, yellow, surrounding the base of the. 
germen in the furrows which part the lobes. When the co- 
rolla decays, the calyx closes over the germen. 
