work. The introduction of it to the Gardens of this 

 country is due to the Horticultural Society, in whose 

 collection at Chiswick, where our drawing was made in 

 May 1828, it had been raised from seeds collected in Chile 

 by Mr. M'Rae. It is increased by cuttings of its half- 

 woody leafy stem, or by division of the roots, or by seeds : 

 during the summer it grows well in the open border, but 

 it will not live there in the winter. 



M. DecandoUe, in framing the character of this genus, 

 in his Prodromus, has unfortunately adopted the error, 

 which, we believe, originated with Forster, of mistaking 

 the calycine segments for petals, and the spines of the 

 tube of the calyx for the real divisions of that organ ; — an 

 error avoided by Willdenow, and the learned authors of 

 the Hortus Keivensis, but followed by Vahl, and all the 

 later German editors of the Species Plantar um. The 

 analogy of Acaena with Alchemilla, Sanguisorba, and 

 other apetalous genera of Rosaccce, first led us to doubt 

 the presence of its supposed petals ; and the examination 

 of this, and some other species, has now confirmed the 

 suspicion that no petals exist ; as, we find, has also been 

 pointed out by the learned editor of the LinncEa. 



In the Herbarium of the Horticultural Society there is 

 an Acaena, found near Conception by Mr. M'Rae, which 

 diff"ers from A. pinnatifida in its more dense habit, in its 

 leaves being white, with long hairs, and in its somewhat 

 larger flowers. This is no doubt the plant spoken of by 

 Schlechtendahl and Chamisso {Limicsa 2. jj>. 30.), as having 

 been found by the latter at Talcaguano, and as being the 

 A. trifida of the Flora Peruviana : if this be so, that species 

 can be scarcely more than a variety of A. pinnatifida, from 

 which it does not appear to us to possess any essential 

 mark of distinction. 



In the same collection, but from the Baths of Collina, 

 near the limits of the snow, exists a plant also resembling 

 A. pinnatifida, but difi'ering from it in not having its leaflets 

 deeply 3-5-fid, but regularly and sharply inciso-serrate. 

 This, we presume, is really a distinct species, which may 

 be defined thus : — 



A. incisa ; erecta sericea, foliis 6-7-jugis, foliolis oblongis cunealis inciso- 

 serratis, capitiilis spicatis ; infeiioribus remotis. 



