150 



[TAB. XLIIL XLIV. XLV.] 



ON THE SPECIES OF THE GENUS COLLETIA, 



OF THE NATURAL ORDER RHAMNE^, 



Discovered by Dr. Gillies in South America. 



The genus Colletia^ named by Commei son in honour of his 

 countryman Collet^ a botanist who, we are informed, studied 

 the plants of Bresse, and proved a great opponent to the sys- 

 tem of Tournefort, was established in the Genera Plantarum 

 of Jussieu, I believe upon the C spinosa^ Lam.^ (C- horrida^ 

 Willd.) a native, it is said, of Brazil, Chili, and Peru; and 

 the main character is made to depend, accordhig to Jussieu, 

 Lamarck, Willdenow, and in part, De Candolle, upon the 

 campanulate perianth or calyx having 5 plicce intcrnally> 

 wliich are squamiform ; yet the C- spinosa presents nothing 

 of this kind, nor has any species of the genus that has come 

 under my observation. Kunth,* too, who has examined 

 Jussieu's own specimen, expressly says, that he ** could not 

 detect the plicae mentioned by Jussieu," but he observed 

 within, an " annular, narrow, fleshy, entire disc, reflexed and 

 glabrous, inserted above the base of the calyx," exactly as I 

 find in all Dr. Gillies's undoubted species of CoUetia. 



Ventenat, in his Jardin de Cels, added C. ohcordata^ and 

 in his Choix de Plantes, C. serratifolia^ and C. Ephedra; allj 

 as well as C horrida^ having opposite spinous branches and 

 few or no leaves, together with campanulate flowers; but 

 these, except C. serratifoliay M. Kunth thinks should consti- 

 tute a peculiar genus, on the one hand allied to Colletia and 

 Hhamnns^ on the other to CeanothuSy differing from the true 

 ColleticB in the presence of petals, and in the absence of a 

 disc. Hence that author excludes from his generic character 

 the 5 squamiform plicue to the calyx and the petals, and de- 

 fines the disc as above in describing that of C\ horrida ; " Vis- 

 cus annularis, angustus, carnosus, integer, calyce supra basin 



\ 





• Nov. Gen. y, 7, p. 46. 



^^ 



