Mr. J. Miers on the Tribe Colletieje. 373 



apart ; the lower ones are bare, but towards the extremities of 

 the branches, beneath each spine, an elongated sprout or sup- 

 pressed branchlet occurs about 3 lines long, which is imbricately 

 squamose, owing to the decussating stipules of the approximated 

 axils ; from these, both opposite leaves and flowers issue in great 

 abundance, which thus appear fasciculated, and in this manner 

 the extremities of the branches assume the aspect of dense 

 spikes, richly covered with flowers. The leaves are 3 lines long, 

 1J line broad, on a slender petiole of half aline in length ; they 

 are somewhat fleshy, serrated on the edges, deeply retuse, and 

 mucronate at the apex ; the peduncle is above a line long ; the 

 calyx, including the short erect segments, is 2 lines long, and 

 lj line in diameter, and is of a reddish hue; the stamens are 

 almost sessile in the sinus of the segments, and they, as well 

 as the small scale-like petals, are only half the length of the 

 segments *. 



Var, /3, exilis : glaberrima, ramulis gracillime vimineis, spinosis, 

 spinis remotioribus, elongatis, tenuiter acuformibus, et inter- 

 dum spinulosis : floribus in axillis subsolitariis. Buenos 

 Ayres. v. s. in herb. Mus, Paris ; in herb. Jussieu (Commer- 

 son) ; in herb. Soc. Linn. Lond. (a Jussieu missa). 



This is of an extremely slender growth, and I consider it to 

 be merely a variety of the above species ; its leaves are deeply 

 serrated, and its flowers somewhat smaller : the internodes are 

 6 to 8 lines apart, the needle-like spines are 9 to 12 lines long, 

 and the spinelets 3 or 4 lines ; the opposite leaves are 4 lines 

 long, including the short petiole, and 1 line broad ; the flowers, 

 like those in Tweedie's specimen, are of a reddish colour; the 

 peduncle is 2 lines long ; the calyx, including its four segments, is 

 2 lines long, and, in like manner, the almost sessile erect anthers 

 and scale-like petals are barely half the length of the short tri- 

 angular segments f 



3. Discaria longispina. Colletia longispina, Hook. Arn. Bot. 

 Misc. iii. 173; fruticosa, glaberrima, fere aphylla, ramis 

 ramulisque virgatis, spinosis, spinis oppositis, remotis, longis- 

 simis, ssepe arcuatis, patentibus, ssepius nudis, calloso-pun- 

 gentibus : ramulis novellis sub spinis enatis, axillis decus- 

 satis foliiferis et floriferis ; foliis oppositis, parvulis, elongato- 

 ellipticis, acutis, integerrimis, rarius apice denticulatis, irno 

 gradatim cuneatis, nitentibus, viridibus, carnosulis, nervis 

 immersis ; stipulis minutis, rubris, ovatis, apice acute 2-den- 

 tatis, longe albido-ciliatis, linea transversali sub spinis inter se 



* A representation of this species will be given in Plate 38 B of the 

 ' Contributions/ 

 f This variety will be represented in Plate 38 c of the same work. 



