IGG MR. J. BALL ON THE BOTANY 



been found elsewhere in Chili, and may possibly be an escape 

 from the Garden at Lota. It is indigenous in Peru, Ecuador, 

 and Venezuela. 



Desfoxtainea spinosa, Bidz ^ Pav. This remarkable plant 

 extends in South America from Fuegia to the Andes of Ecuador 

 and Colombia in several forms, showing considerable varieties of 

 foliage, which have been described as distinct species; but these 

 arc connected by intermediate forms. Its true aflBnities were 

 fully discussed by Bentham in the first volume of this Journal; 

 but it has no close alliance with any other existing genus, and its 

 origin must be sought at a remote period of vegetable history. 



LoKANTHUs EscnsciioLzrANus, Mart. First found by tlie 

 traveller whose name it bears in the neighbourhood of Concep- 

 cion. It appears to be confined to this part of Chili. 



EuonosTACHYS BicoLou, BeutJi. et Hoolc.f. Gen. Pl,\n. 662 

 Bromelia bicolor, Buiz Sf Pav,? A. very singular and highly 

 ornamental plant, which appears to be common on the sea-cliffs 

 about Lota. The flowers, which are crowded into a nearly flat 

 sessile head, are surrounded by a large rosette of rigid leaves, 

 spinosely serrate, with the upper surface bright red (almost scarlet) 

 along the middle, and green at the edges. The low^er leaves are 

 more than a foot in length, and gradually pass into papyraceous 

 oblong bracts, fimbriate at the summit, surrounding the head of 

 flowers. These bracts are of a paler rose hue, and the innermost 

 almost pure white. The leaves are broader than in specimens 

 of -K. bicolor which I have seen, and my plant does not exactly 

 agree wnth the descriptions of the seven or eight published species, 

 most of which appear to be little known, and several are not to 

 be found in European herbaria. 



Lapageria bosea, Binz Sf Pav. This beautiful plant belongs 

 to a group of genera which Bentham classed as a distinct tribe of 



intermediate 



Of 



the seven genera four are monotypic, and none contains more 

 than three species. Three genera are confined to extratropical 

 South America, one is limited to South Africa, and one to Aus- 

 tralia., Of those remaining, one is represented by a single species 

 in Australia, and by another nearly allied in New Caledonia and 

 the Pacific Islands ; while the last, Luzuriaga, has two species in 

 Chili, and a third w^hich is common to Maeellania and New 

 Zealand. These facts, which point to the extinction of a large 



