MR. J. MIERS ON THE AUXEMME2. 27 
dichotome multidivisis, ramis tenuibus, glabris: floribus parvis, cum pedicellis bre- 
vissimis articulatis ; calyce 3-dentato; corolla tenuissime membranacea, limbi lobis 
et staminibus inconstantibus, extus obsolete puberula. In Antillis: v. s. in hb. 
Mus. Brit. et Hook. ins. Cuba (Wright 3119, sub nom. Bourreria succulenta). 
The leaves are 13-21 in. long, 1-1} in. broad, on petioles 3—4 lines long; the panicle 
is 15 in. long; the calyx is 2 lines long, 13 line broad ; the tube of the very transparent 
corolla, as well as its lobes, are of the same length ; the lobes in the flowers of the same 
panicle, as well as the stamens, vary in number from 4 to 6, the rounded teeth of the 
calyx being constantly 3. 
4. PATAGONULA. 
The typical species of this genus was first made known by Dr. Dillen in 1732, who 
described it from a cultivated plant raised in Dr. Sherard's garden at Eltham, and figured 
by him in his Hort. Elthamensis. After the fashion of that period, he called it simply 
Patagonica, because he learned it had been introduced from Patagonia. No original 
specimen of the plant has ever been obtained, so that its exact locality is not known. 1t 
must be remembered that the date of Dillen's plant is 36 years prior to Captain Cook's 
first voyage with Dr. Solander, who was the first regular botanist to explore the Tierra 
del Fuego and the Straight of Magellan. We must therefore look back to the days of 
Dampier, who visited the coasts of Patagonia several times between 1700 and 1720, 
and who, it is known, had a taste for botany, and collected plants and seeds in the 
course of his numerous voyages. At that time, and for nearly a century afterwards, the 
shores of the whole of the South American continent remained utterly inaccessible to 
European search ; and it is, therefore, with the greatest probability that we may assign 
the original source of the plant cultivated in Sherard's garden to the seeds brought home 
by Dampier from Patagonia, perhaps Tierra del Fuego. We know that a kindred species 
was obtained in 1820 by Sello, in South Brazil, and described in 1829 by Chamisso; but 
that is a far more glabrous plant, with narrower leaves, and is certainly very distinct. 
Patagonula, as a genus, was first established by Linneus in 1787, who gave it that 
substantive name in lieu of Dillen's adjective prefix. It was also enumerated in Aiton's 
* Hortus Kewensis’ in 1789, under the name of Cordia Patagonula. Jussieu, in 1789, 
placed Patagonula near Cordia; Endlicher (1838) considered it a doubtful genus: 
and DeCandolle (in 1856) excluded it from the family without assigning to it another 
position. Prof. A. DeCandolle was of the same opinion, because he had observed its 
erect ovules in Blanchet's specimen from Bahia, on which account he was disposed to 
refer the genus to the Verbenacem. This opinion was not supported by Schauer, who 
soon Mai composed his monograph of the latter family for the Prodromus. Fre- 
senius, in 1857, in the * Flora Brasiliensis, placed Patagonula in the Cordiacee without 
hesitation, though ‘he does not seem to have examined it. It appears that no one has 
taken the trouble to inquire into the subject ; and I therefore give the following diagnosis, 
founded upon my own analysis. 
E 2 
