EEPOET OX THE BOTANY OF JUAN FERNANDEZ AND MASAFUKKA. 51 



LABIATE. 

 Cuminia brevidens, Bentli. 



Cuminia brevidens, Benth. in DC. Prodr., xii. p. 258; Gay, Fl. Chi]., iv. p. 510. 



Juan Fernandez. — Endemic. In mountain woods — Bertero, 1490, in part; Reed; 

 Philippi. 



Cuminia is a shrubby or subarboreous genus restricted to the island of Juan Fernandez. 

 Cuminia eriantha, Benth. (Plate LVIII.) 



Cuminia eriantha, Benth. in DC. Prodr., xii. p. 258 ; Gay, Fl. Chil., iv. p. 511. 

 Bysiropogon eriantlius, Benth., Labiata?, Suppl., p. 727. 



Juan Fernandez. — Endemic. In the hills — Mrs Graham ; Gay ; Moseley ; 

 Downton. 



The plant collected by Downton aud figured in this work is, in some of its characters, 

 intermediate between typical Cuminia fernandezia and Cuminia eriantha, and which, per- 

 haps, should rank only as varieties of one species. There is only one specimen in the Kew 

 Herbarium of Cuminia fernandezia, and that is perfectly glabrous, except the corolla and 

 a line of short white hairs on each side across the nodes from petiole to petiole. Further, 

 the leaves are narrower, with a cuneate base ; the inflorescence is looser, and the peduncles 

 and pedicels are very slender. Typical Cuminia eriantha has pubescent branches, leaves 

 (under surface chiefly), inflorescence, and flowers, including the calyx ; and the inflorescence 

 is denser, with relatively short, stout peduncle and pedicels. Downton's plant is altogether 

 less hairy, and the calyx is quite glabrous, while the inflorescence is nearly as loose as that 

 of Cumin la fernandezia. 



The flowers of all the species of Cuminia are dimorphic and functionally unisexual ; 

 the two forms often occurring in the same inflorescence, though the male flowers are much 

 more numerous than the females in all the specimens examined. Some of the specimens 

 bear, or rather bore, for they are all falleu, male flowers only, which, soon after they have 

 discharged their pollen, disarticulate close under the calyx. As represented in the 

 accompanying figure of Cuminia eriantha, the corolla of the male flowers is considerably 

 larger, the shorter style does not reach the anthers, and only rudimentary ovules were 

 found. The female flowers contain rudimentary stamens, some of them with and some of 

 them without anthers, and always (?) destitute of pollen. Possibly the flowers are some- 

 times polygamously monoecious. 



Cuminia fernandezia, Colla. 



Cuminia fernandezia, Colla in Mem. Aecad. Sc. Torino, xxxviii. p. 139 (reprint, p. 25), t. 47 ; DC. 

 Prodr., xii. p. 258 ; Gay, Fl. Chil., iv. p. 510. 

 Juan Fernandez. — Endemic. In mountain woods — Bertero, 14!)0, in part. 

 Not in any of the recent collections. 



