70 
1-2-sperma, evalvis, demim a basi ad apicem irregulariter dehiscens. 
Semina ovato-conica, erecta. Embryo perispermo mucilaginoso 1mmer- 
sus. Cotyledones contortuplicate, in laminas 2 teenizeformes divise. 
Radicula infera, recurva.”’ 
“* Frutices aut suffrutices Canarienses ; erecti vel diffusi, foliis alternis vel 
sparsis, linearibus vel lanceolato-linearibus, integerrimis ; floribus ad 
apices ramorum laté paniculatis, vel axillaribus, pedunculatis, pedunculis 
1-multifloris.”’ 
«The genus Rhodorhiza is distinguished from Convolvulus 
principally by its one-celled, and one or two-seeded capsule, 
the dehiscence of which when thoroughly ripe, takes place ir- 
recularly from the base upwards, its valves being obliterated. 
These characters of the fruit bring it near to Porana, Burm., 
but it has neither the calyx enlarged after flowering of that 
genus, nor its two large round stigmas seated on the summit 
of a long simple style, slightly bifurcated at its extremity. 
Rhodorhiza forms a small group remarkable for its habit, the 
types of which are Convolvulus floridus and scoparius, and to 
these I unite R. glandulosa, n. sp., which differs from them 
both by its simple style, easily separated however into two 
branches, but its stigma is not capitate as in Porana. 
‘The roots of both the original species are fragrant, and 
yield the so-called oil of Rhodium by simple distillation ; though 
the first in a less degree, or sometimes, when young, scarcely 
any. The original lignum rhodium, or pode pica of Diosco- 
rides, which came from Macedonia, was certainly Linneus’s 
Rhodiola rosea, figured as such by Parkinson in his Theatrum 
Botanicum, after Lobel. ‘It grows,’ he says, ‘in the very 
raggiest places on the mountaines of Pangle and Ingleborough. 
Soon after the discovery of the Canaries, this name was trans- 
ferred to Convolvulus scoparius, and afterwards to several 
American plants. It is called in the Islands Lena Noél, a 
corruption of Lignum aloes, and though now in little request, 
large quantities of it were formerly exported, and the plant 
nearly extirpated. The apothecaries in Europe sold it both 
as Lignum rhodium and as the Aspalathus of Dioscorides. It 
soon however lost this latter name, which was handed over to 
a wood brought from India, though the original Aspalathus 
was a thorny leguminous shrub growing on the shores of the 
Mediterranean, probably Spartium villosum, according to Sib- 
thorp, still called by the Greek ’AgaAaros or “Aorrahadea.” 
[It seems probable that this name Aspalath was applied 
by the Greeks to several spiny leguminous plants, especially 
