THE ANNALS AND MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. [SECOND SERIES.] No. 15. MARCH 1849. XVIII. — Observations upon several genera hitherto placed in Solanacese, and upon others intermediate between that family and the Scrophulariaceae. By John Mters, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. My attention during the last few years having been directed to the study of the Solanacecp, I have given the results of this in-quiry in a series of memoirs in the ^ Lond. Journ. Bot./ vols, iv., V. and vii., and also in the ' Illustration of South Amer. Plants/ where delineations are offered of the peculiar features of each genus. Having at length completed the analysis of the remain-ing genera of this order, the results will be given in succession in this Journal ; but in order to explain my views in regard to that family, the following observations are necessary. Following the track I had marked out as the basis of these investigations, which has been chiefly to satisfy myself by careful analysis of the true limits that serve to separate different genera, I have encountered a number of facts which are very difficult to reconcile with our present distribution of the Solanacea, and which have iliduced me to carry this inquiry much further than was at first contemplated. These results having been published at intervals, as they presented themselves, the order in which they have appeared is necessarily imperfect in a systematic point of view ; but as my principal object has been to arrive at truth, I expect some degree of indulgence, for what may appear as de-fects of arrangement and want of plan. I have alluded to the increasing number of novel cases that have offered themselves during this inquiry, which render it difficult to decide whether certain genera should be classed in Solanacece or in Scrophula-riacece, as these natural orders are at present considered ; and in consequence of the accumulation of these anomalies, it appears at length necessarily expedient to draw a more certain line of distinction between tlljl^ two important natural orders. This difficulty is not new in the history of the science, for nearly forty Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. iii. 1 1
BioStor
