42 THE VOYAGE OE H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Robinsonia, thurifera Dene. 



Robinsonia thurifera, Dene, in Aim. Sc. Nat., sex. 2, i. p. 28; DC., Prodr., vi. p. 448; Delessert, 



Ic. Sel., iv.'t. 64; Gay, El. Chil., iv. p. 127. 

 Senecio thurifer, Bertero MSS. in Herb. Kew. 



Juan Fernandez. — Endemic. In stony thickets of the higher mountains — Bertero. 



The Eesina macho, or male resin of the natives, represented in the herbaria consulted 

 by Bertero's specimen only. As observed under Robinsonia evenia, it is impossible with 

 the present material to define the species of this genus or to say how many the specimens 

 represent. Whether the "male"' and "female" resins of Bertero's collection are of the 

 same species, as supposed by him, and, in a manner, confirmed by Planchon in Kew 

 Herbarium, is perhaps a little uncertain. Planchon determined Bertero's Kew specimens 

 from Decaisne's descriptions and figures, cited above — both the " Eesina macho," and 

 "Eesina hembra," as Robinsonia gayana; possibly because the Kew Eesina macho is not 

 male, as described by De Candolle in the Prodromus. The Kew specimen of the Eesina 

 macho is apparently a young female, and quite like that represented in Delessert. All the 

 flowers in all the heads of an excellent specimen are of the same sex ; and, judging from 

 the solitary specimen, we should think Robinsonia thurifera is distinct from Robinsonia 

 gayana. Its Dracsenoid leaves are double the size, and the inflorescence is different, as 

 well as the flowers and achenes. Among the specimens we should refer to, Robinsonia 

 gayana are both male and female ; Bertero's original is wholly female, with perfectly ripe 

 seeds containing fully developed embryos with flat, not convolute, cotyledons. 



Dendroseris berteriana, Hook, et Am. 



Dendroseris berteriana, Hook, et Arn. in Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag., i. p. 32. 



Rea berteriana, Dene, in Guill. Archives Bot., i. p. 515, t. 10, lig. 2 ; DC, Prodr., vii. p. 243 ; 



Gay, Fl. Chil., iii. p. 464. 

 Rea pinnata, var. insignis {forte species distinrta), Bertero MSS. in Herb. Kew. 



Juan Fernandez. — Endemic. Woods in the higher mountains at a place called El 

 Yunque — Bertero. 



The genus Dendroseris, or Rea, as we should prefer calling it, if we might be per- 

 mitted to disregard the strict rule of priority in this particular case in order to render 

 tribute to the man who first collected its species and made them known to the scientific 

 world, belongs to the suborder Cichoriaceae, and is restricted to Juan Fernandez and 

 Masafuera. The earliest record of these singular arboreous Compositee is to be found in 

 Bertero's sketch of the flora of the island (Ann. Sc. Nat., 1830, xxi. p. 348), the sub- 

 stance of which deserves reproducing : " I had forgotten to mention to you one thing 

 which greatly astonished me ; it is the existence of five or six species, which, in my humble 

 opinion, should constitute a new genus. They belong to the Cichoriacese, and, if I am 

 not mistaken, are near Sonehus. Three of them are trees from ten to fifteen feet high, 



