If the natural family of this plant is difficult to fix, so are the 
limits of the species. According to modern views of considering 
any possible variation of form as characteristic of a new species, 
Dunal reckons four species; but I fear he is guided rather by 
locality than difference in form. The original D. spinosa of Ruiz 
and Pavon is the Peruvian plant from Tarma. &. splendens, of 
Bonpland, is from Quindiu, m Ecuador. D. Hookers is the name 
Dunal gives to my D. spinosa from Valdivia. His D. aeutangula 
is from Tolima, near Maraquita, New Granada. A shrub, how- 
ever, which can be traced from the northern part of South Ame- 
rica to Valdivia, and even to Staten Land, in 53° south, may be 
expected to vary in different localities in the size of the plant, in 
the more or less spiny nature of the leaves, in the downy or gla- 
brous calyx, and the relative size of the foliage and corolla. We 
possess specimens from the extreme south which cannot be dis- 
tinguished from those of the north. Everywhere it is a most 
lovely plant, with perennial, glossy, holly-like foliage, and flowers 
often two inches long, rich scarlet, tipped with yellow. Messrs. 
Veitch, of the Exeter and Chelsea Exotic Nurseries, had the 
honour to introduce this plant from Valdivia to our greenhouses, 
through Mr. William Lobb, and our figures were made from the 
plant exhibited at Chiswick, m August, 1853. 
Dzscr. A rigid, erect-growing shrud, with somewhat angular, 
pale-coloured, opposite dranches, and opposite Jeaves. The latter 
are on short fooéstalks, from one to two or two-and-a-half inches 
long, oval rather than ovate, waved, rigid, glossy, lobed at the 
margin, the lobes varying much in number, and tapering, as well 
as the apex of the leaf, into a sharp pungent spine. Peduncles 
solitary, axillary and termmal, thick, longer than the petioles, 
and bearing an oblong green dractea at the base, curved down- 
ward, single-flowered. owers large, pendent. Calyz 5-partite ; 
lobes oblong, obtuse, erecto-patent, glabrous or slightly downy, 
minutely ciliated at the margin, persistent, withering.. Corolla 
two inches long, funnel-shaped, angled, rich scarlet, tipped with 
yellow. Lobes of the limé scarcely spreading, obtuse. Anthers 
nearly sessile, lear, inserted at the mouth of the tube, shorter 
than the lobes of the corolla. Ovary oval-cylindrical, glabrous, 
five-celled. In the inner angle of each cell is a large fleshy recep- 
tacle, bearing numerous pendent ovules on the back, in about 
four longitudinal rows or series. Sfy/e as long as the tube of the 
corolla. Stigma scarcely dilated, obscurely five-lobed. Berry 
globose, about the size of a wild cherry :—a perfect one with 
ripe seeds I have not examined. 
Fig. 1. Seetion of calyx, with pistil. 2. Transverse section of ovary. 3. Co- 
rolla laid open :—magnified. 4. Berry, scarcely mature :—nat, size. 
