

















FLORA OF PATAGONIA, 



483 





























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but in C. Gay's ' Flora Chilena,' Clos remarks that this species, 

 which he wrongly supposes a native of Peru, is cultivated in 

 gardens in Chili, probably for the sate of its medicinal properties. 

 It is called in Chili Betorton. In the same work it is described 

 as growing (in gardens ?) to a height of from 5 to 8 feet, very 

 much exceeding the stature of the wild plant. 



The singular group of species which Bentham distinguished as 

 a section of the genus Prosopis by the name Strombocarpa, and 

 to which Asa Gray was disposed to give generic rank, seems to 

 Delimited to the eastern side of Extratropical South America 

 (Argentaria and North Patagonia), and to the dry region of 

 •Worth America extending from Western Texas to Arizona and 

 Northern Mexico. There are, indeed, two described species 

 p - reptans, Benth. in Hook. Journ. Bot. iv. p. 352, known only 

 from the central provinces of Argentaria; and P. cinerascens, 

 A. Gray, PL Wright, i. p. 61, from North Mexico and the ad- 

 joining region, which can scarcely be separated 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. xxx. p. 381, says of P. cinerascens, " Fructiculus 

 • re panti simillimus, nee distinguendus nisi pube evidentiore 

 praesertim in pedunculis, et interdum in floribus ipsis, et foliolis 

 paullo majoribus et 1| lineam longis." Were it not for the wide 

 difference in the habitat, Mr. Bentham would not have sepa- 



Bentham in 









rated these plants, especially as in some specimens of each there 

 J 8 n o apparent difference in the length of the leaflets 



The 





le 









gumes in Mr. Andrews's specimens are somewhat larger and 

 thicker than in the other specimens of P. stromUlifera which I 

 have seen, but I should not distinguish it even as a variety. 



Saxifeagejj. 



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6 6. ESCALLONIA 



of the Andes,"— 



p 



a 



Shrub abundant on eastern slopes 

 I have had no opportunity of 



— W. Andrews. 



observing the species of this genus on the eastern side of South 

 America ; but I was much struck by the extreme variabUity of 

 the forms encountered on the lower slopes of the Chilian Andes. 

 « seemed to me that it would be very difficult, even when studied 

 ■ the living state, to assign good diagnostic characters by which 

 to distinguish many of the species. I have ventured elsewhere 

 t° express the belief that this is one instance, of which several 

 *U1 occur to the student of the European Flora, in which the 

 processes have not been completed by which, amongst a large 































































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