Mr. J. Miers on the Tribe Colletieae. 13 



Scypharia Guayaquilensis, only that in the former case the lateral 

 teeth are not developed : the floriferous branch, as in the Colle- 

 tieae, rises from between that process and the spine, and is quite 

 analogous to the racemose twig of the species last mentioned ; 

 it has a similar 4-angled stem, with salient angles, and the 

 flowers in both cases are nearly sessile, and placed at some di- 

 stance in decussate pairs. In this specimen of " Colletia tetra- 

 gona," although the fruit has fallen away, the persistent calyx is 

 of a somewhat campanulate form, with five short rounded lobes, 

 and within, at its base, is the vestige of an apparently small 

 disk, with a free border, showing in the middle the scar where 

 the fruit was attached. There is another consideration : in 

 Volkameria spinosa, and other species of that genus, the inflo- 

 rescence is a cyme, 3-chotomously branched, the flowers being 

 borne upon long slender pedicels, bracteated at their base ; but 

 in this plant the flowers are arranged in almost sessile pairs 

 upon a straight rachis. These circumstances induce me to 

 retain the plant among the Colletiece, where Brongniart first 

 placed it, and to arrange it provisionally in Scypharia, with 

 which it offers so many points of analogy, until a better know- 

 ledge can be obtained concerning it. I may also add that its 

 spines exactly conform to those of the Colletiece, having the same 

 corneous pungent apex*. 



Observations. — The Rhamnus microphyllus, H.B.K. tab. 616, 

 from Mexico, might be thought to belong to Scypharia, on ac- 

 count of its 2-lobed petals and 2-celled ovary ; but its habit is 

 quite incompatible. Its branches are spineless, decumbent, and 

 alternate ; its leaves are also alternate. Its relation is probably 

 with Microrhamnus ericifolia, A. Gray (PI. Wright, p. 34), to 

 which perhaps Colletia disperma, DC, is allied, all being indi- 

 genous to Mexico. 



A new genus has lately been proposed in the ' Linnsea' (xxviii. 

 618), by Dr. Philippi, under the name of Sciadophila, founded 

 upon the Colletia Maytenoides of Dr. Grisebach, a plant from 

 one of the southern provinces of Chile (Valdivia). I have care- 

 fully examined this plant, and find that in its general habit and 

 in its floral structure it differs in no respect from the genus 

 Condalia of Cavanilles. Dr. Philippi places his genus among 

 the Colletiece ; but it evidently belongs to the Rhamnece (Frangu- 

 linece, lleiss.) : the segments of the calyx are divided to the 

 margin of the disk, and are deciduous, as in Condalia, it has 

 also no petals ; the stamens are of the same form, and are simi- 

 larly situated; in the structure of its ovary, in its style and 



* This plant will be figured in Plate 42 d of the same work. 



