188 Mr. J. Miers on a new species of Lardizabala, 



was subsequently figured in Delessert's l Icones/ i. 24. tab. 91, 

 where the leaves are all divided biternately, and the leaflets are 

 represented sometimes inequilateral at base, or partially lobed 

 and mucronate, more or less regularly oblong or ovate, and sub- 

 obtuse or acute. We find, moreover, in the same specimen the 

 petiolar leaflets either cordate or rounded at base, orbicular or 

 ovate, entire or denticulated. I cannot, therefore, perceive any 

 permanent characters corresponding with the two species above- 

 mentioned, and certainly all the specimens I have seen are 

 referable to one species. From the marked manner in which 

 some of the leaflets in L. biternata are lobed, it is not unreasonable 

 to suppose that the leaflets may sometimes become further sub- 

 divided ; but that must be considered as a very exceptional fea- 

 ture. The specimens grown in this country, from which Sir 

 Wm. Hooker made his drawing in Bot. Mag. tab. 4500, bear a 

 rather different aspect, with the leaves somewhat modified in 

 form and texture, from those of native specimens ; but that pro- 

 bably is the result of garden cultivation. The plant there 

 described was brought from Concepcion, where it is stated to 

 grow abundantly, and is no doubt identical with the specimens 

 in our herbaria collected in the same neighbourhood. 



The small leaflets at the base of the petiole have always been 

 considered as bracts, but they appear to me to partake more of 

 the character of stipulary leaves, for the following reasons : — 

 The peduncle, both of the male and female inflorescence, springs 

 out of the middle of a bud-like verticil of small, erect, squama- 

 ceous, hairy bracts, similar in size and shape to those found at 

 the base of the pedicels ; this cluster of bracts grows out of the 

 middle of a conspicuous gland-like prominence, seated on the 

 stem, a little above the petiole ; and it is from the margin of 

 this prominence that these leaflets emanate : this difference in 

 the place of their origin shows that they should be considered 

 as stipules rather than bracts. They occur both in the floriferous 

 and barren axils, and therefore appear to have nothing to do 

 with the inflorescence ; the real bracts are always hairy, while 

 these leaflets are smooth and veined, with a texture exactly re- 

 sembling that of the leaves. I have occasionally seen a verticil 

 of three of these leaflets at the base of a petiole. 



During my residence at Concon, about twenty miles from 

 Valparaiso, now thirty-five years ago, I found growing in its 

 neighbourhood a species of Lardizabala in flower and in fruit, 

 specimens of which I still possess. Concluding it to be a plant 

 well known and described, I did not then bestow any particular 

 attention upon it; and it was only by comparison with other 

 specimens in different herbaria, after my return to England 

 above twenty years afterwards, that I found it to differ essen- 



