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Description of several New or Rare Plants ichich have lately 

 Jlowered in the neighbourhood of Edinhurgli, and chief y in 

 the Royal Botanic Garden. By Or Guaham, Professor 

 of Botany in the University of Edinburgh. 



\Oth July 1834. 

 Alstrcemeria oculata. 



A. oculata ; caule terete, volubile, glabro ; foliis ovato-oblongis, obtusis, 

 utrinque glabris ; petiolis tortis ; umbellis multifloris, pedunculis sub- 

 bifloris, pedicellisque glabris ; bracteis bracteolisque obovato spathu- 

 latis, crispatis; petalis nonconformibus, longitudine subaequalibus. 



Alstrcemeria oculata, Loddiges' Bot. Cabinet, t. 1851 — Cuming's Herba- 

 rium, No. 345. 



Desceiption — Stems numerous, flexuose, and voluble, green, glabrous and 

 shining, simple. Leaves ovato-oblong, many. nerved, crispid at the edge 

 in our specimen, glabrous on both sides, bright green above, glaucous 

 below, petioled ; petioles twisted, illustrating that beautiful arrangement 

 of nature to correct that lusus so common in this genus, by which the 

 upper and lower surfaces of the leaf are originally reversed. Umbel ter- 

 minal, several rayed, the rays generally bifid, and supporting two flowers. 

 BractecB and bracteolce corresponding in number to the primary and secon- 

 dary divisions of the umbel, obovato-spathulate, crispid and generally co- 

 loured in the edges. Corolla (9 lines long, 74 across) campanulate, red ; 

 petals subequal in length, the outermost the broadest, nerved, ovate, nar- 

 row so as to resemble a claw nearly in the lower half, notched at the 

 apex, somewhat revolute in their edges ; inner ones sandglass-shaped, 

 pubescent within on their lower half, connivent in the middle, so as to 

 close the throat which is whitish and surrounded by a broad dark purple 

 semilunar band, especially on the two uppermost (which are the broad- 

 est) of the three inner petals. Stamens shorter than the corolla, decum- 

 bent, filaments glabrous at their origin and near the apex, pubescent 

 and slightly swollen in the centre, immediately above which they are 

 sprinkled with small lilac tubercles. Anthers ascending, reddish-leaden 

 coloured, oblong, flat, bursting in the edges, when, as in the genus, they 

 become flattened in the opposite direction; pollen granules minute, green- 

 ish-leaden coloured. Pistil about as long as the stamens ; stigma trifid ; 

 style glabrous, with some small scattered lilac tubercles on its upper part. 

 Germen dark green, turbinate, triquetrous, angles rounded. 



This extremely beautiful, though small flowered species, we received at 

 the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, from Mr Knight in the beginning of 

 this year. It flowered in April. No native station was communicated 

 to us, but the specimens in Cuming's herbarium are from Valparaiso. 

 My specimen from this source differs from the cultivated plant only in 

 being more drawn out, in the peduncles being occasionally 3-flowered, in 

 the leaves being more oblong, less glaucous, and free from undulation 

 in the edge ; but in every essential particular they seem the same. 



Gastrolobium retusum. 



G. retusum ; foliis cuneatis, truncatis, utrinque lanato-pilosis, breve pe- 

 tiolatis, nervo medio in setam deciduam produclo ; stipulis setaceis 

 pilosis, persistentibus ; capituliss tipitatis, terminalibus axillaribusque. 

 Gastrolobium retusum, Lindleg, in Bot. Reg. 1647. 

 Descbiptigk. — Shrub erect; branches long, slender, round, pubescent, 

 dotted with green. Leaves (1 inch long, 4 inch broad) vertioillate, cu- 

 neate, truncate, reflected in the sides, covered above and below with long 

 subapuressed somewhat woolly hairs, shortly petioletl, middle rib pro- 

 longed into a deciduous bristle. Stipulce bristle-like, hairy, more than 



