DRIMYS WINTERI 
George Handasyd, upon his return, presented some specimens to 
Sir Hans Sloane, who gave a description and figure in the Philo- 
sophical Transactions. But it appears that the flowers and fruit 
were wanting, and a systematic location was impossible, until 
in 1768, Captain Wallis, of the Dolphin, brought some perfect 
specimens, which came into the hands of Dr. Solander, who, from 
these, and his own observations drew up his description, 
““Drimys Winreri is one of the largest forest trees upon Ter- 
ra del Fuego; it often rises to the height of fifty feet. The 
branches do not spread horizontally, but bend upwards, and forra 
an elegant head of an oval shape. The leaves come out without 
order, of an oval, elliptic shape, quite entire, obtuse, flat, smooth, 
shining, of a thick, leathery substance, evergreen ; on the upper 
side, of a lively deep green color, and of a pale bluish color un- 
derneath, without any nerves, and their veins scarcely visible; 
they are sometimes narrower near the footstalks, and there their 
margins are bent downwards. In general the leaves are from 
three to four inches long, and between one and two broad ; they 
have very short footstalks, seldom half an inch long, which are 
smooth, concave on the upper side, and convex underneath. 
From the scars of the old footstalks, the branches are often tu- 
berculated. The peduncles, or footstalks for the flowers, come 
out of the axilla foliorum, near the extremity of the branches ; 
they are flat, of a pale color, twice or three times shorter than 
the leaves, now and then support only one flower, but are oftener 
near the top divided into three short branches, each with one 
flower. The bractee are oblong, pointed, concave, entire, thick 
whitish, and situated at the base of each peduncle. Calyx it 
has none, but in its place the flower is surrounded with a spatha- 
ceous germ of a thick leathery substance, green, but reddish on 
the side which has faced the sun; before this germ bursts, it is. 
of a round form, and its size is that of a small pea. It bursts 
commonly so that one side is higher than the other, and the seg- 
ments are pointed. The corolla consists always of seven petals, 
which are obtuse, oval, concave, erect, white, have small veins, 
and are of an unequal size, the largest scarcely four lines long ; 
they very soon fade, and drop off almost as soon as the germ 
bursts. The ji/aments are from fifteen to thirty, and are placed 
on the flat end side of the receptacle ; they are much shorter — 
than the petals, and gradually decrease in length towards the 
sides. The anthera are large, oval, longitudinally divided into 
two, or as if each was made up of two oblong antheras. The 
