130 



rubra. Antherce obloiigas, Versailles, pallide rubrae, bilo- 

 culares. Pollen flavum. Pistillum longitudine staminum. 

 Germen subpedicellatum, oblongum, compressum, glandu- 

 losum. Stylus filiformis, ruber, basi glandulosus. Stigma 

 infundibulitbrme, parvum. Legumen acinaciforme, com- 

 pressum, glanduloso-villosum, bivalve : valvis coriaceis 

 elastice dehiscentibus, demum spiraliter tortis. Semina 9 

 vel plura, compressa, nitida, griseo-fusca. 



I owe much of the above description to Dr. Gillies* of 

 Mendoza, who made notes upon the living plants, and 

 obligingly communicated them with the specimens of this 

 very beautiful shrub. The flowers are very much larger 

 than those of any other of the tribe of CcEsalpinecB^ with the 

 exception of Heterostemon and the recently discovered 

 Poinciana Regia (Bot. Mag.) of Madagascar, and their 

 structure is such that I have hesitated whether to refer the 

 plant to Ccesalpinia or Poinciana, having the capsule of the 

 former, and the lengthened stamens and style of the latter. 

 Sprengel has perhaps judged rightly in uniting the two 

 genera. In the fringed extremities of the calyx it has some 

 affinity with Coulteria of Humboldt, and in the size and 

 general aspect of the flowers, as well as in the shape of the 

 fruit, with Heterostemon of Desfontaines ; but in this latter 

 the stamens are united and unequal. Mezoneurmn again has 



* Since Dr. Gillies returned to Europe, he has favoured me with the follow- 

 ing particulars of this plant: — " The Ccesalpinia, called by the natives Mai de 

 OJos, is very abundant in the cultivated parts of Mendoza, where it has the 

 benefit of the water used in irrigation, seeming to be incapable of living on the 

 dry arid lands which are not under cultivation. Along the southern frontier 

 of the jtrovince of Mendoza, between the rivers Diamante and Atuel, it is found 

 abundantly with other shrubs in sheltered situations : also among thickets along 

 the western side of the Rio Quarto, near the western boundary of the Pampas ; 

 those plants to be found growing in Buenos Ayres owing their origin to seeds 

 sent from Mendoza. They do not ascend farther than to the foot of the 

 mountains, neither are any traces of them to be seen in the province of San 

 Juan, which follows Mendoza to the north, along the foot of the Cordillera of 

 the Andes." 



