Bulbocodium and. Merendera, however, which, following Mr. Ker#, I consider as belonging to Colohicum, appear to me decidedly to form snbgenera or sections ; and in this opinion I am confirmed by having found a fourth section of the same genus. This fourth subgenus is established on H yfoxjs fascicui.aris, a plant which has been seen by very few botanists, and which, Linnaeus intro, duced into hisSpeciesPlantarum, and referred to Hypoxis,. solely on the authority of the figure published in Dr. Russell’s History of Aleppo, In the Banksian Herbarium I have examined part of the original specimen of this species, found by Dr, Alexander Russell, and figured by Ehret in the work referred to, as well as more perfect specimens collected by Dr. Patrick Russell; and am satisfied that its ovarium is not in any degree adherent to the tube of the perianthium. I find, also, that Hypoxis fascicularis differs from Cqlchicum,merely in having a simple unilocular ovarium with a single parietal placenta and an undivided style, instead of the compound trilocular ovarium vyith distinct or partially united styles, common to all the other sections of that genus. t A reduction, as in this case, to the solitary simple pistillumf,„.though existing in all Graminese and in certain genera of several other families of Monocotyle- dones, is yet comparatively rare in that primary division of plneoogamous plants, and'in the great class Liliacem, the present species of. Colciiicum offers, I Obs.—Spathic 2—8—florae; lintbi laciriite vel lancfcolatffi acutiiiScuile oblbngie obiusse • Crist« laciniatuni bmrihim saipC firnbriato-inciste:, eX'teriorum nunc integfcrrim«U t O^ula iir singulis ovarii loculis bisoriata, plaeentarum marginibus appvoximata ; nec ut in .C. ?tutQmnaii quadFiseriata. * Botan. Magaz. 1028. mj f T h e b i s excellent "Analyse du J^ruit/’ in pointing out the ^j^iftctjnn^between. a • §mple md^ corappund pericarpium, produces;, tliat of Melanthacea; as an example of tlyj compound, in opposition to that of Commelineae or of Juncese, which, though equally 'multPOcuIar, ne considers^ sifnple! A krfowledge of the Structure ' of <5oichiciim Monocaryiim wOuio; ria 'aount/n^'^xMfifm'eft'him fii:his bpWort respeCti% Melartthsrcese. ' 11 It has always appeared to me surprising, that a oirpologist so profound; as M. Richard, and whose notions of the composition of true dissepiments, ami oven of thefanalqgy in placentation ^ultilppi^^ ^pd nuilqyular, pericarpia, wpre, in a great degree, equally correct and .original, should never have arrived at the knowledge of the common type of the organ or simple pistillum^ to which all fruits, whether unilocular or multilobularj were reducible; ahd ‘that 'he should, in the instance nbiv cited, have attempted to distinguish iritb sithple and cofh jiouhd two modifications of the latter so manifestly analogous, and which differ from each other only in the degree of coalescence of their component parts. believe, thé oély known example. Yet this remarkable character is: here so little influaStiàlj"if I may so speak, that Hypoxis. fascicularis. very closely resembles some states of Golchicum Ritchii, and .in the Banksian herbarium has actually been confouiided with another species of the first or trigynous sec- tion of the geiius; To thé first section, which includes • Cole hi cum RtVc/i«Vthe subgeneric name Hermodactyhm may, perhaps, be applied ; while that established on Hypoxis fasCidularis may: he called Monocan/um. The position o f the pistillum in Colchicum {M<mocaryum) fascicular,e is not easily determined. I believe it to be placed within the anterior segment of the outer series of the perianthium, but, from the great length of the tubéf it is difficult to ascertain such a point in dried specimens. This,, however, is the position in which I should expect it, both in reference to the usual relation of thé solitary simple pistillum to the axis of the spike,¡or to the subtending braétea in all phænogamous plants ; and also with regard to the constant relation of the parts of the compound pistillum to the ¡divisions of the perianthium in Monocotyledones : for it is worthy of remark, that a difference in this relation may be said to exist in the two primary divisions of phænogamous.plants—the pistillawhen distinct, or their component parts when united, being in Dicotylédones usually placed opposite to the petals, when these are of equal number ; while in Monocotyledones the cells of the trilocular ovarium are, I believe, uniformly opposite to the divisions of the outer series of the perianthium. C y p e r a c e æ . O f twelve species of this family existing in the herbarium, six are referrible to Cyperus, three to Fimbristylis, and three to Scirpus. Among these there is no remarkable, nor, I believe, any undescribed species. O f C. Papyrus, which, according to Captain Clapperton, grows in the Shary, there is no specimen in the collection. G r a m ix f .æ . Of this extensive family, with which Dr. Oudney was more conversant than with any other, and to which, therefore, during the expedition, he probably paid greater attention, the herbarium contains forty-five species : and in dividing the order into two great tribes, as I have formerly proposed *, thirty * Flinders's Voy. to Terra Austr. 2. p. 582. * f 2
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