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XII. On a new Genus of Plants from Chile. By John Miers, Esq., 



F.L.S., ^c. 



Read December 21st, 1841. 



Among the many drawings which I made from living plants during ray 

 residence in Chile, between the years 1822 and 1824, and which were made 

 known to several botanists during my short stay in England in 1825, is one 

 which I now beg to offer to the notice of the Linnean Society. It represents 

 a plant, to which I then gave* the name of Cruckshanksia graminea, after my 

 friend Mr. Alexander Cruckshanks, a zealous contributor to South American 

 botany ; but as his name has since been commemorated under a handsome 

 genus of the Cinchonaceous family, I have changed the title of my plant to 

 that of Solenomelus, from au)Xriv tubus, jueXoc memhrum, on account of the con- 

 fluence into a tubular form both of the stamina and stigmata. The plant 

 belongs to the natural order Irideoe, and is very closely allied to Sisyrinchium, 

 from which, however, it differs in some essential characters. 



Solenomelus. 

 Cruckshanksia, Miers, Trav. ii. p. 529 {non Hook.). 



Chab. Diff. Perianthium petaloideum ; tubo brevi, incurvo; limbo 6-partito, laciniis 

 patentibus, 3 superioribus erectioribus, 3 inferioribus deflexis. Tubus stamineus cum 

 tubo perianthii coalitus, inde liberus, ventricoso-tubulosus, ore antheras 3 sessiles 

 gerens. Stylus filiformis. Stigma integrum, urceolato-tubulosum, margine ciliatum. 

 Capsula triquetra, 3-locularis, loculicide 3-valvis. — Herbae Chilenses perennes, habitu 

 Sisyrinchii. Spatha 2-valvis, dorso sub apice mucronata. 



Chak. Nat. Perianthium monophyllum, petaloideum, mox marcescens ; tubo brevi, de 

 repente curvato; limbo 6-partito, laciniis subaequalibus, basi spathulatis, marginibus 

 subappositis, ovatis, 3 superioribus erectioribus, 3 inferioribus sigmoideo-patentibus 



* Travels in Chile and La Plata, 1825, vol. ii. p. 529. 



