328 CONTRIBUTIONS TO 
the anthers, converging around the style above the mouth of 
the tube, are narrow, linear, 2 locular, with parallel adnate 
cells, which burst longitudinally somewhat laterally ; the pol- 
len is yellow and farinaceous, and when seen in the micro- 
scope, both in the dried and humid state, is globular with 3 
salient obtuse equidistant points. The ovarium is pyramidal, 
its base being deeply enveloped by a conspicuous fleshy 
orange-coloured disc; the style is conical at base, above which 
it has a broad band of long white hairs, and is quite smooth 
towards the summit, which rises a little above the anthers; 
the stigma is rather large, clavate, somewhat hollow, cup- 
shaped, and fleshy. The berry is of an oblong form, of a 
bright scarlet colour, about 4 an inch long, and wide, api- 
culate at the summit with the persistent base of the style; it 
contains from 16 to 20 rather large dark brown seeds, enve- 
loped in pulp; these are of a roundish square form, greatly 
flattened, with a small hilum on the marginal edge ; the testa 
is hard, brittle, and rugous, both its surfaces, and especially 
the margin, being densely set with long rigid simple hairs; 
the albumen is fleshy ‘rather compact, and encloses a nearly 
annular, filiform, embryo; the radicle is about one-third the 
length of the embryo, and points towards the hilum, the coty- 
ledons being semiterete and arcuate.* 
I found this plant at several places in the Pampas, at à 
distance of nearly 600 miles in the interior, and afterwards 
near Buenos Ayres; and although these differ very much in 
appearance, I can hardly venture to designate them as dis- 
tinct species; they are therefore added merely as varieties. 
Var. 8. divaricata; caule flexuoso, valde divaricatim Ta- 
moso, foliis obovatis, minoribus, utrinque pilosiusculis.— 
Pampas, ab Esquina de Medrano usque Frayle muerto, Pro- 
vinciæ Cordovensis. 
This plant is of more straggling habit, the branchlets 
spreading very widely, and the leaves scarcely exceeding 4 to 3 
* À representation of the above species with ample details is shown 
Plate 1 of the “Illustrations of South American plants, &c." i; 
