Page:Miscellaneousbot01brow.djvu/285

 OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 267

their agreement is very strikinp: in habit, in leaves, in tlie closely pressed bipartite pubescence, in the calyx, petals, stamina, and stigma. They correspond, also, in some other points, less obvious but equally important, \vhieh I shall separately notice. The first of these is in having eight glands on the receptacle ; a character peculiar, I believe, to these plants, and which first suggested the generic name Octadenia. The glands in Alyssum maritimum were entirely overlooked by Adanson, are not noticed by ^I. Desvaux, and M. De CandoUe has described only the four that subtend the longer stamina. These certainly are much more conspicuous than the remaining four, which, how- ever, occupy the place of the only glands existing in several of the most nearly related genera.

The number and position of the glands in this genus give some support, perhaps, to the hypothesis Avhich I have formerly advanced, of the divisions of an hypogynous disk being in most cases formed of abortive filaments; an opinion more strikingly confirmed, however, in this family of plants, by their form and texture in Alyssum calycinum and minimum.

The second point in which the two species of Koniga agree is in the structure of the septum. On this, which I consider as a new source of character in Crucifcroc, I shall offer some remarks in speaking of Farsetia.

arclc approximatis formato supra basin cvanesccnti in monospcnnis obsoleto ortis dcsccndentibus. Funiculi iu dispermis polysperniisque in divcrsis loculis alterni.

Obs. Koniga ad Alyssincavum tribum Be CancL pcrtincns, hinc Alysso auc- torum indo I'arscliixi acccdit, Sed Alyssum, uti in llort. Kew, et he ('and. Syst. Nat. constituLum est, cciie divisione egct.

K'Di^^vyi nob. facile distingucnduni sequcnlibus notis : Silicula subrotunda, disco convcxo, limbo comprcsso, apicc rctuso, loculis dispermis, funiculis basi scpto adnatis ct post lapsum scminum persist cntibus, supra liberis et cum iisdcm dcciduis, in divcrsis loculis oppositis, in codem a styii basi equiciis- lantibus: Fetalis cmargiuatis : Filamcnlis omnibus nonnullisvc appendiculatis in spcciebus omnibus prrcter A, calycinum in quo lllamenta filirormia simj)licia sunt et glandularum loco sctulai quatuor lilamenla nana a^mulantcs oxstant.

Ad Alyssum sic constitutum et licrbas i)lerumquc annuas pubc stellari foliisque intogorrimis complcctens pertinent A, cam])estro ot calycinum, JJnn., strigosum Ilusaell, minimum inild. et strictum ejusd. a quo dcnsitloruui Be.^ont. vix. dilTcrt ; I'ulvescens Smilh, ua\bellatum Vosv. rostratum Steo, micro- peiulum Tisch. hirsutum Bieb. aliusque species iueditas.

�� �