TRANSACTIONS 
OF 
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 
I. On the Genus stamina, noi to the Family of the Capparidaceæ. 
By JOHN Mires, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. Se. 
Read January 18, 1848. 
A TREE belonging to the Natural Order Capparidacee, growing in the arid desert 
plain at the foot of the Cordillera de los Andes, which I examined with some attention in 
1825, and which I then named Atamisquea emarginata (Travels, vol. ii. p. 529), was also 
found about the same time by the late Dr. Gillies, from whose specimens Sir W. Hooker 
subsequently first published its generic character (Botanical Miscellany, vol. iii. p. 143) ; 
but as my Notes upon the living plant, illustrated by drawings made at that time, vary in 
some respects from the excellent description given by that very distinguished botanist 
from dried specimens, I have thought that my observations upon this little-known genus 
may perhaps be acceptable to the Linnean Society. 
ATAMISQUEA, Miers. 
Cuar. Dirr. Sepala 2, magna, ovoidea, concava, æstivatione marginibus subimbricatis, cum toro car- 
noso cyathiformi persistente demüm indurato dentibus erectis notato basi coalita, decidua. Petala 6, 
e margine tori orta, inzequalia, lineari-spathulata, reflexa; 9 superiora erectiora, æstivatione subim- 
bricata; 2 lateralia breviora, exteriora. Stamina 9, quorum 6 fertilia, longiora; filamenta æstivatione 
replicata, demüm recta, declinata, glabra, basi glandulosa, lepidota; anthere oblongæ, 2-loculares, 
basifixæ, erectæ, demüm curvata. Thecaphorum declinatum, basi glabrum, disco staminifero cine- 
tum, hinc geniculatum; indè gracile, elongatum, et cum ovario lepidotum. Ovarium ovatum. Stylus 
brevissimus. Stigma obtuse 2-lobum. Bacca ovoidea, subcarnosa, densè lepidota. Semina 2 (vel 
abortu 1), exalbuminosa, cochleato-reniformia, funiculo libero erecto 2-furcato ex imo loculo orto late- 
raliter appensa. Testa coriacea, loculo altero incompleto hilo opposito. Embryo campylotropus ; 
cotyledones magne, foliaceze, invicem plicato-convolute ; radicula teres, infera, sursüm spectans. 
Cuar. Nar. Sepala 2 (anticum et posticum), ovoidea, concava, æstivatione marginibus subimbricatis, 
intüs hirsuta, extüs lepidota, decidua, basi (toro adnato) coalita. Torus ovalis, cyathiformis, car- 
nosus, persistens, demüm induratus, obliqué gibbosus, margine superiori altiori, dente erecto sub- 
VOL. XXI. B 
