164 NOTES ON MADEIRA PLANTS. ^ 



a figure in the * Phytographia Canariensis, 5 tab. 55 ? It is certain that 

 the absence of lateral venous reticulations on the legumes is by no 

 means constant. Fourthly, dried plants which I have received from 

 the Azores, marked Lotus macrantkus, Lowe, exhibit characters so in- 

 termediate between Madeiran specimens of Lotus macrantkus and Pe- 

 drosia argentea, Lowe, as to suggest the question whether we have not 

 here a single species, different as it may look in extreme specimens. 



With regard to the Campanulaceous plant named by Mr. Lowe after 

 Mr. Wollaston, the naturalist, the genus of which was left in doubt. 

 I may state that the ripe capsules show distinctly that Mr. Lowe's con- 

 jecture as to Musschia being the true genus was correct. The dehis- 

 cence is by means of transverse slits between the nerves ; the capsules 

 bear a general resemblance to those of M. aurea, but they have a semi- 

 globose instead of an obconical shape; the margin of the disc is 

 crowned with the persistent lobes of the calyx, the lobes being lanceo- 

 late, elongate, and acute. This very handsome plant is not so rare as 

 Mr. Lowe's "rariss." might lead one to suppose. It has been met 

 with in five of the principal ravines, and in two of them abundantly, 

 so that it is somewhat strange it had not been previously discovered. 

 Mr. Mason informs me that the largest specimen he has seen in his 

 rambles was six feet high (including a flowering raceme two feet and a 

 half long, and one foot and a half through), with leaves two feet long. 

 The difference of habit between the two species is as striking as that of 

 their habitats, Musschia Wollastoni haunting the cool, damp, shady, and 

 elevated ravines on the northern side of the main crest of mountains, 

 M. aurea flaunting on the hot and arid cliffs of the coast. 



In the observations prefixed to Mr. Lowe's 'Primitise Faunae et 

 Florae Maderae et Portus Sancti' (1830), he stated that Tamnus edulis, 

 Lowe, had not, as far as he was able to ascertain or discover, been 

 found wild in Madeira. I have myself however seen several plants of 

 this species growing wild amongst the rocks, three hundred or four hun- 

 dred feet above the sea, at a spot on the south coast ; and a plant was 

 shown me the other day which came from a ravine in the centre of the 

 island. Mr. Mason informs me that he recently obtained a plant from 

 an almost inaccessible rock in a ravine on the north-west of the island, 

 and he has been assured of its existence in a wild state on the sea-cliffs 

 in that part. It may therefore be noted that Tamnus edulis is a truly 

 indigenous plant of Madeira. 



