28 FLORA ANTARCTICA. [Auckland and 



Hab. Lord Auckland's group ; on banks near the sea. 



In many respects this species is intermediate between the two former, but is equally distinct from both, 

 and so nearly allied to the L.scariosa, as to induce me to adopt the name of propinqua; it differs from that 

 plant in its much larger size, more divided leaves and very woolly habit. The genus Leptinella appears to have 

 been hitherto but little understood by botanists ; it was founded by Cassini in 1822, upon (apparently very im- 

 perfect) specimens of two plants whose habitat was entirely unknown. In 1841 it was again taken up by the 

 authors of ' Contributions to a Flora of South America, &c.' (vide Hook. Journ. Bot. vol. iii. p. 325), where a 

 supposed new species, L. acano'ules, H. and Arn., is described. This latter is a very common plant in the ex- 

 treme south of the American continent, and we have assumed it to be thei. scariosa of Cassini and DeCandolle, 

 the leaves and peduncle being either smooth or hairy in that plant. There are still some characters described 

 by the above-mentioned authors as belonging to that genus which my specimens do not exhibit. Thus all the 

 flowers are stated in one species to be females : I do not find this to be the case ; nor should much stress be 

 laid upon a peculiarity of structure, drawn from a single capitulum " dont les fleurs sont extremement petites et 

 defigurees ou alterees par la desiccation et la compression" (Cassini in Diet. Sc. Nat. vol. xxvi. p. 67). In 

 all the plants of the genus which I have examined, the heads of flowers are monoecious ; but the flowers of the 

 disc especially, being all males, are, after the performance of their functions, easily displaced by pressure. The 

 "long, straight, linear, obtuse, bracteiform leaf" (Diet. Sc. Nat. I.e.) at the base of the peduncle is also not 

 apparent ; nor am I able to conceive to what organ of our plant this can apply, except a young cauline leaf, 

 generally present near the peduncle, can have assumed such a form or suffered mutilation. On the other hand, 

 the description of the involucral scales, covered, as are the flowers, with glands, and the characters drawn from 

 those organs themselves, will, collectively, accord with no other plants that have ever fallen under my notice. 

 The second described species, L. pinnata, seems hardly to differ from the L. scariosa, except indeed that the 

 notice of the above-mentioned glands is under it omitted ; but Cassini further mentions the singular character 

 of the female corolla being " enflee," an anomalous structure, upon which I shall here offer a few remarks. 



In all the four species of the genus with which I am acquainted, the style of the flowers of the ray is 

 invested, or sheathed loosely, by a very delicate hyaline tube, marked, in several instances, by distinct slen- 

 der nerves, always five in number. This tube enlarges around the swollen bulb of the style and is inserted 

 underneath it into the apex of the achanium : at its summit it meets the inflated corolla, and in the form of 

 a membrane or tissue completely continuous with it, they together constitute the four obtuse, inconspicuous, 

 rounded lobes of the corolla. The latter organ, thus viewed, consists of two distinct membranes, united above 

 and perhaps below. On first observing this structure in L. plumosa, whose flowers are not furnished with 

 glands, and whose corolla is, so far as I can detect, entirely nerveless, I was inclined to consider the corolla as 

 reflected upon itself, the reflected portion entirely investing and concealing the real tube : because I was unable 

 to trace any intervening tissue connecting the two parietes or opposite coats, where an apparent complete va- 

 cuity exists ; and especially because in some allied genera of Cotulece, and in other plants not far removed from 

 the present genus, the corolla is reflected, and in a Tasmanian species as much as half-way down its whole length, 

 its lower free margin being obscurely four-lobed ; and in Otochlamys, DeC, its base is produced downwards so 

 as to hide a great portion of the achaenium. On the other hand, in the three species which are supplied 

 with glands, it is only the outer surface of the exterior coat of the corolla which is furnished with these organs. 

 Were this outer membrane the reflected limb of the corolla, the true situation of the glands would be on its 

 inner surface ; but though appendages of the cuticle are not uncommon on the surface of both ligulate and tu- 

 bular flowers of Composite, I am not aware of their ever existing on that surface. The oblique mouth of these 

 corollas and the constantly unequal divisions at its apex, of which one is always the largest, seem to point out 

 the larger tooth as being analogous to the ligula of radiate capitula, especially as one of the four teeth is often 

 suppressed. Lastly, the five nerves, which are most evident in L. lanata on the inner tube, are not visible on 

 the outer ; it is very difficult to trace their termination, but they do unite at the summit of the tube, forming 



