OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 153 



rigid and rough above, more densely pubescent beneath, | to 1 ^ inches 

 long; petioles 2 to 4 lines long; glands none and stipules obsolete: 

 racemes short (6 to 10 lines), the pistillate flowers few and solitary at 

 the base: stamens 15: petals villous at base: pistillate calyx a line 

 long : styles once parted : capsule densely stellate-pubescent, nearly 4 

 lines long, tlie smooth seeds nearly 3 lines long. — Of the Eucroton 

 section and allied to the last species, apparently undescribed. In the 

 San Miguelito Mountains, San Luis Potosi (872 Schaffner). 



Argytiiamnia HUMiLis, Muell. Arg. At San Antonio (1248), 

 Laredo (1247), and Corpus Christi, Texas (1230). 



Argtthamnia Neo-Mexicana, Muell. Arg. At Monclova (1246), 

 and San Lorenzo de Laguna, Coahuila (1250). 



Argytiiamnia mercurialina, Muell. Arg. (?) The petals of the 

 male flowers ovate with a broad short claw, acute, somewhat undulate, 

 the glands wanting or wholly adnate to the thick stamineal column : 

 petals of the female flowers obsolete and glands very small ; fruiting 

 calyx-lobes only H lines long: pubescence scanty, appressed. — At 

 Sutherland Springs, Texas (1249). 



Bernardia myric^folia, Watson. At Monclova, Coahuila (322, 

 1232). 



Bernardia (?) fascicdlaTxV, A much-branched leafy shrub, 5 

 feet high or more, aj^parently dioecious, the young branches canescent 

 with a short close silky pubescence : leaves in numerous sessile fas- 

 cicles, or alternate on young shoots, rather thick, spatulate or oblan- 

 ceolate, 2 to 4 lines long, glabrous or nearly so, entire : male flowers 

 fascicled, on slender pedicels about a line long, glabrous ; sepals 

 5 ; stamens 3 to 5, free, surrounding a fleshy disk or rudimentary 

 ovary, the short-oblong terete anther-cells attached near the top : 

 female flowers very nearly sessile ; calyx very small : ovary appressed- 

 silky ; stigmas thick, obscurely lobed : capsule sessile or nearly so, 

 puberulent, subglobose with a deep depression at base, not deeply 

 lobed, and cocci 2-valved, 3 or 4 lines long : seeds flattened-obovate, 

 smooth, with a prominent caruncle partially covered by the raised 

 testa. — An anomalous species of doubtful position, only provisionally 

 referred to Bernardia. It appears to be allied to Bernardia and, per- 

 haps more nearly, to Adelia, but differs essentially from both. In 

 the mountains northeast of Monclova, Coahuila (1233) ; collected also 

 by Gregg on the plains southwest of San Pablo, in April, 1847, — 

 staminate specimens only, — and by Thurber (837), at Saucillo, Chi- 

 huahua, in fruit. Palmer's specimens, collected in September, are in 

 fruit and with pistillate flowers in some of the leaf-fascicles. 



