SOUTH AMERICAN BOTANY. 63 
laciniis foliaceis persistentibus coronata, unilocularis, subfolli- . 
cularis, vel sutura longitudinali postice dehiscens, placenta nune 
omnino soluta, in tæniam angustissimam centralem liberam semi- 
nigeram (rarius medio fissam) cum stylo persistenti continua. 
Semina plurima (circiter 40), patentia vel suspicientia, breviter 
stipitellata, ovata ; zesta longitudinaliter costata, reticulato-scro- 
biculata, apice chalaza subobsoleta notata; albumen carnosum : 
embryo axilis, teres, fere orthotropus, radicula terete, infera, hilo 
spectanti, cotyledonibus ovalibus paulo latioribus, multoties 
longiore. 
Herba Chilensis rigida, per totam scabrido-pilosula, caulibus 
perpaucis, e collo ramosis, erectis. Folia fere radicalia, oblonga, 
acuminata, basi in petiolum decurrentia, enervia, grosse spinoso- 
dentata: folia caulina, terna, equalia, sessilia, quarum 2 lateralia 
(bracteæ) e basi ovarii utrinque orta, rigida, linearia, spinoso-den- 
tata, florem solitariam sessilem involucrantia, persistentia ; caulibus 
tune in inflorescentiam quasi spicatam redactis. 
1. Cyphocarpus rigescens : foliis radicalibus oblongis, grosse 
dentatis, dentibus mucronato-spinulosis rachi marginibusque carti- 
lagineis, rigidis, in petiolum decurrentibus, mox caducis, caulinis 
bracteisque consimilibus linearibus, laciniisque calycinis runcinato- 
dentatis, rigidissimis, persistentibus ; ramulis subspicatis, subflex- 
uosis, e basi ortis, adscendentibus. Chili (Coquimbo): v. s. in herd. 
Hooker et Mus. Brit. (Bridges, n. 1293.) 
This curious plant seems to be quite herbaceous in its habit, 
although of arid and harsh appearance : its root is long, slender, 
and tapering: it branches from towards its base into a few nearly 
erect, somewhat flexuose floriferous stems about a foot high, bear- 
ing a single flower in each axil. ‘The radical leaves, including he —— 
petiole, are eleven lines long, and three broad: the floral leaves 
and bracts are nine lines long, and about a line broad: the caly- 
cine leaflets in flower, are four lines long, and scarcely a line 
broad, but they increase in length to six lines upon the ripened 
and enlarged capsule: the inferior ovarium is three lines, and the 
Superior corolla six lines long; this is persistent, although the — * 
border becomes shrivelled ; itis, apparently, of a bluish huc, but 
