the accuracy of which, either as to the number or length of stamina, it is difficult to believe, especially when we find it also representing the petals inserted by pairs on the two upper sinuses of the calyx.
The genus Crateva agrees, as I have already stated, in the remarkable æstivation of its flower with Cleome Gymnogonia, by which character, along with that of its fruit, it is readily distinguished from every other genus of the order. Although this character of its æstivation has never before been remarked, yet all the species referred to Crateva by M. De Candolle really belong to it, except C. fragrans, which, with some other plants from the same continent, forms a very distinct genus, which I shall name Ritcuiea, in memory of the African traveller, whose botanical merits have been already noticed.
Capparis sodada nob. Sodada decidua, Forsk. Arab.
p. 81. Delile, Flore d'Egjypte. p. 74, tab. 26. De Cand. Profr. 1, p. 245.
The specimen in the herbarium is marked by Dr. Oudney as belonging; to a tree common on the boundaries of Bornou, It is probably the Suag, mentioned in his journal, observed first at Aghedem, and said to be "a tetrandrous plant, having a small drupa, which is in great request in Bornou and Soudan, for removing sterility in females : it is sweetish and hot to the taste, approaching Sisymlnium Nastutium;" and that "in passing the plant a heavy narcotic smell is always perceived."
I have here united Sodada with Capparis, not being able to find differences sufficient to authorise its separation even from the first section of that genus, as given by De Candolle.
Forskal describes his plant as octandrous, and M. De Candolle has adopted this number in his generic character. M. Delile(op. cit.), however, admits that the stamina vary from eight to fifteen ; and, in the specimen which I received from M. Jomard, I have found from fourteen to sixteen. But were the number of stamina even constantly eight, this alone would not justify its separation from Capparis,
