VOL. I.] Mexican Notes. 231 



third as long as the segments, which are recurved-spreading, mu- 

 cronate and scarious, with the exception of a small area of the cen- 

 tral and lower part; the throat is furnished with five semicircular 

 processes directed upward, covering the attachment of as many 

 linear-acuminate staminodia (?), which are nearly as long as the pe- 

 rianth segments and recurved at the tip: stamens five alternate with 

 the staminodia; filaments deltoid, very short: ovary nearly sessile, 

 tapering upward into the stout style which is 3-lobed, recurved and 

 stigmatiferous for its upper third; ovules usually three; seed solita- 

 ry, erect, oblong-pyriform; embryo nearly linear, slightly curved; 

 cotyledons longer than the radicle, accumbent or sometimes a little 



oblique. 



This is the third and most northern species of Achyronychia 

 known to botanists. A, Cooperi, credited to New Mexico, has 

 been collected in the southern part of this State, in the Mojave Des- 

 ert especially. A. Parryi is known only from central Mexico. The 

 species here described is nearest the latter, but is a much hand- 

 somer plant. It differs especially in the proportions of the peri- 

 anth, in the structure of the style and in the cotyledons, which are 

 accumbent in Rixfordii^ but incumbent in Parryu It is probable, 

 however, in view of these and other closely related plants with sim- 

 ilar differences, that the value of the position of the cotyledons as a 

 diagnostic has been overestimated. 



MEXICAN NOTES. IV. 



BY W, G. WRIGHT. 



El Rio is a river, twenty miles inland. I came by the diligence, 

 or stage. Six little mules, harnessed two to the pole and four 

 abreast in the lead, dragged the heavy coach through the miry 

 sloughs amid the tangled thickets which cover the low-lying country 

 between the salt sea and the foothills. When the mire is deeper 

 than usual, or when thelitde animals stop through fatigue, an increase 

 of shrieks from the driver (never an oath, upon my word) and un- 

 limited strokes from his terrible whip, and the energetic outside 

 application of clubs, stones and yells by the helper (for it takes two 

 men to drive a diligence, a driver, and a helper who goes along to 

 help extricate the stage if hopelessly stalled), soon arouse the mules 



