Tas, 5033. 
COLLETIA cructiatTa. 
Cross-spined Colletia. 
Nat. Ord. RoHaAMNE#.—PENTANDRIA MoNoGYNIA. 
_ Gen. Char, Calyx membranaceus, campanulatus v. tubulosus, limbi quinque- 
1d ciniis ovatis, suberectis ; disco annulari, supra fundum tubi adnato, margine 
involuto. Corolla nulla. Stamina 5, inter lacinias calycis summo tubo 
issius inserta ; filamenta filiformia, ad tubi fandum decurrentia. Anthere 
mes, loculis apice confluentibus, uniloculares, hippocrepice, rima arcuata, 
ivalves. Ovarium liberum, globosum, triloculare. OQvula in loculis solitaria, e 
basi erecta, anatropa. ‘Stylus filiformis, simplex, ealycis tubum eequans. Stigma 
obsolete trilobum. Fructus siccus, sphericus, calycis basi circumscissa libera vel in- 
ferne vix adheerente stipatus, trilocularis, tricoccus ; coccis crustaceis, secedentibus, 
bivalvibus, monospermis. Semina erecta, ovata ; testa crustacea, levissima ; raphe 
introrsum laterali. Hmbryo albuminis carnosi flavi strato tenui tectus, orthotropus ; 
cotyledonibus maximis, carnosis, planis; radicula brevissima infera.—Suffrutices 
Peruani et Chilenses, ramosissimi, subaphylli ; ramis decussatim oppositis, divaricatis ; 
ramulis spinescentibus, interdum foliaceo-dilatatis ; foliis nullis v. minutissims, 
oppositis, integerrimis ; floribus axillaribus, fasciculatis v. infra spinarum basin sitis, 
nutantibus, albidis v. albido-roseis. Endl. 
% vor! 
Couterta eruciata ; fruticosa, ramis viridibus cauleque spinis magnis ovato- 
triangularibus lateraliter compressis acutissimis horridis, foliis rarissimis 
minutis ellipticis deciduis, floribus lateralibus solitariis fasciculatisve. 
CoL.erta cruciata. Hook. et Arn. in Hook. Bot. Miscel. 1830, p. 152. 
Coterta Bictoniensis. Lindl. in Journ. Hort. Soc. v. 5. p. 31 (with woodcut, 
excellent). 
oy jie) Jae gi ee eee 
__ “This, one of the most singular among the many curious plants 
in Dr. Gillies’ rich collection from South America, was gathered 
during a hasty visit from his ship to the shores of the Banda 
Oriental, near Maldonado. It may be considered as a shrub 
whose stem and branches are constituted of a mass of opposite, 
decussated and decurrent, large, laterally compressed spines, of 
the same dull-green colour as the central portion that unites them, 
and equally woody; their tips are darker-coloured, sometimes 
brown, and very pungent. If the fascicle of flowers appbals a 
any point except that of the base of a spine, it 1s either at the 
FEBRUARY Ist, 1858. 
