extremity or below some slight swelling, and is indicative of a — 
new spine which is about to appear. The leaves are so rare, that _ 
upon the dried specimens only one could be found, and that 
upon one of the youngest branches. The form and structure of — 
the flowers are very similar to those of Colletia feror.” Having 
thus published, twenty-eight years ago, my views of the general — 
structure of this remarkable plant from native specimens, and — 
alluded to no specific affinity with C. spinosa (also described in — 
the same Memoir), it can hardly be expected I should concur — 
in the extraordinary transformation represented to Dr. Lindley — 
as having occurred at Bicton Park, Sidmouth, by the intelligent — 
gardener to Lady Rolle, Mr. James Barnes, viz. in the rearing 
of C. cruciata from seed of C. spinosa. Let it be recollected, that 
“when Sir Philip Egerton first saw this plant at Bicton Garde 
and made inquiries of Mr. Barnes respecting it, the latter ha 
quite forgotten its origin; but he had since a perfect. recol- 
lection, and was reminded by the foreman of the Arboretum, 
that it was a seedling raised from C. spinosa.” It is noways dis- 
creditable to Mr. Barnes to infer that the latter view may be 
erroneous, and that it is a plant which, through some channel 
or other, was directly received from the eastern (and not the 
western) side of South America, where I believe C. spinosa never 
occurs. It would require experiments of the most confirmed and 
. Satisfactory kind to show that this and C. spinosa (equally faith- 
fully figured by Dr. Lindley, Journ. Hort. Soc. 1. c. p. 30, wood- 
cut) were one and the same species. We cultivate them both 
at Kew: one the Chilian species, C. spinosa, is perfectly hardy, 
and flowers without shelter; while our present plant will only 
succeed under the shelter of a wall, and never flowers. In De- 
vonshire it is different. We have received the most beautiful 
specimens reared by Mr. Veitch, in Devonshire, and from these 
our figure is taken. The flowers, at first sight, much resemble 
those of some Ericaceous Plant, and have quite a waxy appearance. — 
. Descr. A shrub three to four feet high, copiously branched, — 
the whole as it were made up of large, ovate-triangular, opposite 
and decussate, laterally compressed, green, yet woody, very pun- 
gent spines, singularly decurrent at the base. Here and there, 
chiefly on the younger branches or small,terminal spines, an op- 
posite pair of minute, elliptical, serrated leaves are to be seen; © 
but these soon fall away. From the base of the spines the flowers 
ata on short peduncles, solitary or fasciculate, two to four — 
m the same point, drooping, yellowish-white, tinged with — 
Pa n at the base. Perianth single (calyx), the tube cylindrical, — 
but a little swollen at the base, where there is a little difference 
in texture, which difference terminates where the curious annulus 
1s situated, and which is characteristic of the genus Colletia ; this — 
