SOUTH AMERICAN PLANTS. js 49 
40 distincta, supra discum pluri-serialiter disposita, 1-ovu- 
lata.* Stylus centralis, breviusculus, pentagonus. Stigma 
clavatum, 5-lobum. Drupe totidem ; nux angulata, endo- 
carpio crasso, textura coriacea, spongiosa, 1-6-locularis, 
loculis 1-spermis, basi perforatis, apertura omnino clausa, 
operculo a semine demum secedente. Embryo filiformis 
intra albumen carnosam cyclicus, cotyledonibus semitere- 
tibus, radicula ad hilum spectante.—Herbee Chilenses annue 
prostrate carnosule, floribus speciosis Convolvulaceis. 
1. Sorema paradoxa, Lindl. Bot. Reg. 1844, tab. 46. No- 
lana paradoxa Lindl. (non Hook.) Bot. Reg. tab. 865.— 
prostrata, pubescens: foliis geminatis, ovatis, obtusis, 
spathulatis, altero subsessili, subdecurrenti; pedunculo 
axillari, folii longitudine; corolle limbo amplo, campanu- 
lato, ceeruleo, fauce albo.—Concon, Chile. 
This plant is so well known, that it needs no particular 
description: all that is worthy of mention is the structure of 
its fruit, which I do not think has been yet sufficiently detailed. 
The peculiarity of this genus as established by Dr. Lindley is, 
that its many carpels are all perfected into an equal number of 
1-seeded drupes; but I have observed sometimes in the above 
species, though it rarely happens, that 2-3 nuts are combined 
into one, which is then 2-3 celled, each cell having a single seed. 
In habit it approaches the typical genus Nolana. The nut is 
smooth, unequally rhomboidal, sharp-angular, of a spongy co- 
riaceous consistence, the place of its basal attachment being 
marked by a small round cicatrice, being the area of a hard cy- 
indrical operculum that closes the channel leading into the 
included.cell. The seed which fills the cavity is reniform and 
compressed, the testa is yellow, reticulate, and crisp, the inner 
integument is a very thin transparent membrane enclosing 
the albumen, which is white, hard and fleshy ; the embryo is 
white, filiform, bent in a somewhat spiral form, the radicle 
® Although the disc is partially adnate, it is not so distinctly stipitate 
as in Dolia and Alibrewia, for the lobed margin is quite free, and the 
corolla arises below it upon the line of junction of the base of the disc with 
the calyx and torus as shown in fig, 7 and 8, Plate 10. 
H 
Mo. Bot. Garcsa 
1S. 
