TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



I. On the Genus Atamisquea, belonging to the Family of the Capparidacese. 

 By John Miers, Esq., F.B.S., F.L.S. fyc. 



Read January 18, 1848. 



A TREE belonging to the Natural Order Capparidacece, growing in the arid desert 

 plain at the foot of the Cordillera de los Andes, which I examined with some attention in 

 1825, and which 1 then named Atamisquea emarginata (Travels, vol. ii. p. 529), was also 

 found about the same time by the late Dr. Gillies, from whose specimens Sir W. Hooker 

 subsequently first published its generic character (Botanical Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 143) ; 

 but as my Notes upon the living plant, illustrated by drawings made at that time, vary in 

 some respects from the excellent description given by that very distinguished botanist 

 from dried specimens, I have thought that my observations upon this little-known genus 

 may perhaps be acceptable to the Linnean Society. 



Atamisquea, Miers. 



Char. Difp. Sepala 2, magna, ovoidea, concava, aestivatione marginibus subimbricatis, cum toro car- 

 noso cyathiformi persistente demum indurate- dentibus erectis notato basi coalita, decidua. Petala 6, 

 e margine tori orta, inaequalia, lineari-spathulata, reflexa ; 2 superiora erectiora, aestivatione subim- 

 bricata; 2 lateralia breviora, exteriora. Stamina 9, quorum 6 fertilia, longiora; filamenta aestivatione 

 replicata, demum recta, declinata, glabra, basi glandulosa, lepidota ; anthera oblongae, 2-loculares, 

 basifixae, erectae, demum curvatae. Thecaphorum declinatum, basi glabrum, disco staminifero cinc- 

 tum, hinc geniculatum ; inde gracile, elongatum, et cum ovario lepidotum. Ovarium ovatum. Stylus 

 brevissimus. Stigma obtuse 2-lobum. Bacca ovoidea, subcarnosa, dense lepidota. Semina 2 (vel 

 abortu 1), exalbuminosa, cochleato-reniformia, funiculo libero erecto 2-furcato ex imo loculo orto late- 

 raliter appensa. Testa coriacea, loculo altera incompleto hilo opposito. Embryo campylotropus ; 

 cotyledones magnae, foliaceae, invicem plicato-convolutae ; radicula teres, infera, sursiim spectans. 



Char. Nat. Sepala 2 (anticum et posticum), ovoidea, concava, aestivatione marginibus subimbricatis, 

 intus hirsuta, extus lepidota, decidua, basi (toro adnato) coalita. Torus ovalis, cyathiformis, car- 

 nosus, persistens, demum induratus, oblique gibbosus, margine superiori altiori, dente erecto sub- 

 VOL. XXI. B 



