F
the pleasure of having so soon to record as an inhabitant o f
our gardens. It belongs to a small but interesting family of
dants peculiar to South America, and as far as we yet
mow, to Peru, and Chile ; those of the former country being
distinguished by a strictly tubular perianthium. Two species
only have been recorded by former botanists ; to those we
have had the satisfaction of adding four more species, besides
the one now under consideration, which we can scarcely be-
beve to be the same with the Gynopleura Imearifolia, of
Cavanilles ; the smallness of its flowers, the deeply parted
crown, the elliptical ovarium, and the plant being clothed
with shaggy hairs, appear sufficient to warrant us, in the
absence of more direct evidence, in keeping them apart.
The present, as well as our M. humilis, and some otiers,
is annual, and was raised by Mr. Brown from seeds collected
in Chile, by Mr. Hugh Cuming, from whose rich herbarium
we had previously described the species. The plant flowered,
for the first time, in September last ; it requires a light
sandy soil, and is increased by seeds.
The genus was dedicated to the memory of M. Lamoignonde
Malesherbes, some time President of the Court of Aids, and
Minister of State in the reign of Louis the Sixteenth, whose
disinterested and zealous advocate he afterwards became before
the National Convention. M. de Malesherbes was a distinguished
philosopher, and an active promoter of botany and
horticulture, in which sciences, as well as that of agriculture,
he took great delight. He was unquestionably one of thé
most spotless and exemplary characters of his time ; but
nothing could save him from the vengeance of the accursed
crew, which, under the banner of liberty, then deluged
France with blood, being, at the age of seventy-three, drag^d,
together with his only daughter, to the scaffold ; affording a
fearful warning of the extremes to which popular assemblies
may be led when once beyond the reach of the laws
D . Don Mss.
1. Leaf. 2. P isü l.