SOUTH AMERICAN PLANTS. 131 
‘cularis, vel sutura longitudinali postice dehiscens, placenta nunc 
omnino soluta, in teniam angustissimam centralem liberam semi- 
nigeram (rarius medio fissam) cum stylo persistenti continua. 
Semina plurima (circiter 40), patentia vel suspicientia, breviter 
stipitellata, ovata; ¢eséa longitudinaliter costata, reticulato-scro- 
biculata, apice chalaza subobsoleta notata ; albumen carnosum : 
embryo axilis, teres, fere orthotropus, radicula terete, infera, hilo 
spectanti, cotyledonibus ovalibus paulo latioribus, ultoties 
longiore. 
Herba Chilensis rigida, per totam scabrido-pilosula, caulibus 
perpaucis, e collo ramosis, erectis. Folia fere radicalia, oblonga, 
acuminata, basi in petiolum decurrentia, enervia, grosse spinoso- 
dentata: folia caulina, terna, equalia, sessilia, quarum 2 lateralia 
(bractese) e asi ovarii utrinque orta, rigida, linearia, spinoso-den- 
tata, florem solitarium sessilem involucrantia, persistentia ; caulibus 
tunc in inflorescentiam quasi spicatam redactis. — 
1. Cyphocarpus rigescens: foliis radicalibus oblongis, grosse 
dentatis, dentibus mucronato-spinulosis rachi marginibusque carti- 
lagineis, rigidis, in petiolum decurrentibus, mox caducis, caulinis 
bracteisque consimilibus linearibus, laciniisque calycinis runcinato- 
dentatis, rigidissimis, persistentibus ; ramulis subspicatis, subflex- 
uosis, e basi ortis, adscendentibus. Chile (Coquimbo): v. s. in herb. 
Hooker et Mus. Brit. (Bridges, n. 1293.) 
This curious plant seems to be quite herbaceous in its habit, 
although of arid and harsh appearance : its root is long, slender, 
and tapering: it branches from towards its base into a few nearly 
erect, somewhat flexuose floriferous stems about a foot high, bear- 
ing a single flower in each axil. The radical leaves, including the 
petiole, are eleven lines long, and three broad: the floral leaves 
and bracts are nine lines long, and about a line broad: the caly- 
cine leaflets in flower, are four lines long, and scarcely a line 
broad, but they increase in length to six lines upon the ripened 
and enlarged capsule : the inferior ovarium is three lines, and the 
superior corolla six lines long ; this is persistent, although the 
border becomes shrivelled ; it is, apparently, of a bluish hne, but 
the upper galeate lip is of a deep crimson colour, and the palate 
of the opposite lip seems of a roseate tinge, judging at least from 
$2 : 
