? 
™ 
among Leguminose, not less distinct than extraordinary. 
The valves, instead of dividing the pod into two equal por- 
tions, as usually happens in papilionaceous plants, or by 
their cohesion forming an indehiscent fruit, separate in 
Carmichelia, both from the placentiferous and barren mar- 
gins which are left upon the plant after the seeds have 
fallen, and resemble the persistent placentas of a crucifer- 
ous capsule with an obliterated dissepiment. The term 
replum, which is employed in Mr. Brown’s generic charac- 
ter to designate the persistent circumscription of the 
legume, was used by Vitruvius for the frame of a door, 
and, we believe, has been already applied to the purposes 
of botanical description in the sense in which it is used 
here, which is certainly unexceptionable. " 
. The garden plant has been compared by Mr. Brown 
with the specimens from Cook’s voyage, in his own collec- 
tion, and with an authentic specimen from George Forster's 
Herbarium, as well as by ourselves with others from some 
part of New Zealand; and no difference has been detected 
between them. - 
In explanation of the name applied to this plant, we 
make the following extract from Mr. Brown’s communica- — 
tion upon the subject: 
«« J have named the genus in honour of my friend, Cap- 
tain Dugald Carmichael, I'.L.S., a very accurate Botanist, 
whose interesting account of the Island of Tristan da Cunha 
is published in the 12th volume of the Linnean Society’s 
Transactions, ‘and to whom I am indebted for extensive 
collections, and many excellent descriptions of the plants 
of the island of Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope.” 
A hardy greenhouse plant, of the easiest cultivation, 
forming a branched, leafless bush, with its young branches 
compressed or two-edged, and toothed on their edges by 
minute stipule. Leaves of the young plant are ternate 
or pinnate, with 8-7 obcordate leaflets. The Jowers are 
small, and of an agreeable lilac colour, and are disposed 
in little simple racemes, appearing in profusion from the 
denticulations of the branches. Calyx cup-shaped, with 5 
nearly equal, very short teeth. Petals of nearly equal 
length: vevillum broader than long, without any calli or 
auricles at the base; carina obtuse. Anthers uniform, oval. 
Ovary linear, 5-6 seeded. Style subulate, ascending. Stigma 
simple, obtuse, beardless. Pod 4-seeded (1-3), with the 
frame persistent after the fall of the valves. Seeds uniform, — 
with the recess closed up, and the umbilicus naked. 
Our drawing was made in Mr. Colvill’s Nursery, in 
March last. Ale 1h, 
°e 
