104 



An Account of a new Genus of Plants^ named Macrcea. — By 

 John Lindley, Esq., F.R.S., &c. &c. 



In the number of this Journal for January, 1827, will be found 



some remarks upon the orchideous plants of ChiH, founded upon 

 an examination of a large herbarium, from that country, in the 

 possession of the Horticultural Society. From the same rich 

 mine I have now selected a small set of unpublished plants, 

 both on account of their intrinsic singularity of structure, and 

 also for the sake of commemorating the deserts of the excellent 

 collector by whom they were first discovered. 



The plants, which are the subject of the following observations, 

 are small arid shrubs, natives of high land, in the interior of the 

 western side of South America. Their leaves are opposite, 

 without stipulee, beneath glandular, and densely covered with 

 very thick tomentum. The flowers are axillary and terminal ; 

 the calyx five-toothed, and strongly ribbed ; the petals ungui- 

 culate, persistent, and unfading ; the stamens hypogynous, and 

 twice the number of the petals ; the ovarium superior, three- 

 celled, with two ovula in each cell, one of which is ascending, 

 the other suspended from a small common placenta in the mid- 

 dle of the axis ; and the stigmata are three. The capsule is 

 enveloped in the persistent calyx and petals, and divides half 

 way into three loculicidal valves, which separate from the axis. 

 The seeds are unknown. 



Such are the most prominent features in the structure of the 

 three known species of Macrsea, the characters of which it will 

 be convenient to define, before any attempt is made to deter- 

 mine what affinity they bear to other plants already known to 

 botanists. 



MACR^A. 



Calyx inferus campanulatus 5-dentatus, costis cuique lacinise tribus quarum duoe 

 marginales sub sinu confluentes. Pelala 5, toro brevi inserta, unguiculata, arida, per- 

 sistentia, immutata, asstivatione contortiva. (S/amma 10, apici tori brevis inserta; 

 filamenta filiformia ; anthercE innatae anticae biloculares longitudinaliter dehiscentes. 

 Ovarium superum triloculare ,• ovula cuique loculo duo : altero ascendente, altero 

 suspenso ; placenta parva in medio ovario ad basin axeos. Stylus brevis ; stigmata 

 tria, linearia marginibus reflexis. Capsula vestita papyracea 3-locularis semitri- 



valvis; valvis loculicidis ab axi secedentibus usque ad placentam. Semina 



Suffrutices ai-idce (Chilenses). Folia opposita, exstipulala, pube simplicij 



subtus lanata, Petala a/6a, v, rosea. 



