t 



Mr. J. Miers on the genus Lycium. 341 



This is an extremely polymorphous species, under which I 

 have united many forms which I formerly considered as distinct 

 species, but as there is little apparent difference in their floral 

 structure they must be regarded as mere varieties. They are all 

 widely spread over the extensive desert plains that skirt the 

 eastern side of the Andes ; many even reach the Atlantic : they 

 vary greatly in the shape and size of the leaves even in the same 

 plant, in their more glabrous or pubescent habit, or in a greater 

 abundance or paucity of leaves and flowers. This species is 

 closely assimilated to L. salsum and L. Chilense, but still more 

 approaching L. Grevilleanum. In that variety which I have 

 taken as the type of the species, the whole plant is more pubes- 

 cent, the leaves linear, somewhat acute, 2 to 5 lines long, |^ to f 

 line broad, tapering into a short slender petiole : the peduncle is 

 I line long ; the tube of the pubescent calyx is i line long, its 

 pointed linear teeth 1 line in length ; the tube of the corolla is 

 pubescent externally, 1|^ line long, the lobes of the border 2 J 

 lines long and \\ line broad; the nearly equal stamens, 3 lines 

 in length, attain the ends of the segments : the ovary and style 

 are 4^ lines long. I found this plant on the Alto del Yeso, a 

 low mountain range in the province of San Luiz, bordering on 

 that of Mendoza. In this, as in all the other varieties, the sta- 

 mens exhibit the same peculiar linear gland with fimbriated 

 margins which I have described in the foregoing species, and 

 similar tufts of hair upon the inner face of the tube, alternating 

 with the staminal glands*. 



Yar. p. linear e ; the leaves are here more copious, not so pubes- 

 cent, 6 to 12 lines long, |^ to 1 line broad, but in the same 

 specimen often not more than 3 lines in length : this I col- 

 lected also on the Alto del Yeso as well as the Coral de Desa- 

 guadero in the same province f. 



Var. 7. confertifolium : here the leaves are broader, oblong, and 

 more glandularly pubescent, 4 to 6 lines long, 1^ line broad ; 

 the axils are closely approximated at the extremities of the 

 branchlets, so that the fascicles of leaves appear crowded : the 

 branchlets issue from the branches at right angles, or some- 

 times curving downwards ; the cup-shaped nodes are unusually 

 prominent. I found this variety in the province of Mendoza ; 

 it is the same as a specimen in Sir Wm. Hooker's herbarium 

 collected by Dr. Gillies (L. Hookerianunij Gill. MSS.J). 



Var. S. divaricatum : a variety greatly resembling the last in its 



* This plant with floral analysis is shown {loc. cit.) in plate 73 A. 



t A figure of this variety with details is given {loc. cit.) in plate 73 B. 



X A representation of this plant with details is given {loc. cit.), plate 73 C. 



