144 MR. J. MIERS ON TWO GENERA OF PLANTS FROM CHILE. 
OXYTHECA, Nutt. 
Involucrum 3-4 florum, tubulosum, sub-4-gonum, ad medium 4-partitum ; laciniis subæqualibus, acutis, 
longissimé aristatis. Flores hermaphroditi, pedicellati, bracteati, subexserti, demüm cernui. Sepala 
3-4, petaloidea, æqualia, oblonga, unguiculata, valdé imbricata, ima basi cum petalis subcoalita. Petala 
3-4, sepalis alterna et subsimilia, tenuiora, glabra, imbricata, et cum istis persistentia. Stamina 6-8; 
e summo gynophoro orta, inclusa, 3—4 alternatim breviora, sepalis opposita ; filamenta filiformia, apice 
inflexa; anthere rotundatæ, cordate, dorsifixe. Ovarium ovatum, 3-4-gonum, stipitatum, petalis 
tertiò brevius, 1-loculare ; ovulo basilari, erecto. Styli 3-4, breves, erecti, demüm divaricati ; stigmata 
capitata. Achenium monospermum, ovale, 3-4-costatum, subcompressum, sepalis petalisque emar- 
cidis arcté tectum. Semen unicum, loculum implens; ¢esta membranacea. Embryo spiralis, anti- 
tropus, intra albumen farinaceum inclusus; cofyledonibus cochleato-rotundis, foliaceis, accumbentibus; 
radiculá istis 3-plo longiore, tereti-subulatä, hemicyclicá, apice recto verticem spectante. 
Herbæ suffruticulose Californice et Chilenses, Andicole, sesquipalmares, valdè ramose, ramis gracilibus, 
in quáque axilld dichotomè divisis; folia radicalia congesta, lineari-subulata, caulina bracteiformia, 
axillaria, terna, basi connata, hinc breviter vaginantia; involucrum longè pedunculatum e quáque 
dichotomiá ortum; flores minuti, sigillatim precociores; pedicelli singulatim basi bracteá lineari 
aristatá breviore donati. 
1. OXYTHECA SPICULATA, n. sp.; valdé ramosa, ramulis divaricatis dichotomè deliques- 
centibus teretibus gracilibus glanduloso-pilosis, foliis radicalibus congestis spa- 
thulato-linearibus utrinque aspero-pilosis pilis patentibus & tuberculis totidem ortis ; 
caulinis in quâque dichotomiá ternis bracteiformibus acutis apice mucronulatis 
aspero-pilosis basi in vaginam brevissimam confluentibus, pedunculo solitario gra- 
cillimè elongato, involucro 3-4-floro ; laciniis longissime aristatis, pedicellis unifloris 
basi bracteatis demùm exsertis, floribus cernuis 4-meris rarissime 3-meris, sepalis 
hirsutulis petalisque consimilibus glabris rubentibus. 
Hab. in Andibus Chilensibus, descensu orientali, circa rivulum Sanctæ Mariæ, altitudine 8000 ped. v.v. 
This plant, about 4 or 5 inches high, is very dichotomously branched. A rosulate 
cluster of about twenty radical leaves spring from the collar of a lengthened tap-root. 
The leaves, linear, spathulate and attenuated into a slender petiole, are about 8 lines 
long, 1 line broad, somewhat fleshy, opake, and are covered on each side with numerous 
patent rigid hairs, each hair springing out of a prominent tubercle. A simple short terete 
stem, 8 lines in length, rises out of the cluster of leaves, and is crowned at its summit by 
a verticil of six acute bracts, vaginantly united at their base: out of this verticil spring 
three equal branches, 11 lines long, each being in succession and with regularity dichoto- 
caged ns into other more slender br anchlets, and their nodes, about 10 lines distant, 
are each furnished at their base with three bracts, two being opposite the stems and one 
en all equal, acute, aristate, and united into a vaginant cup about each axil: from 
e middle of each of the first and of each successive dichotomy rises a capillary erect 
og decus long, bearing at its summit an urceolate involucre, the tube of which is 
: d ra me its four lobes of similar length, each terminated by a fine needle-shaped 
otal mo gs or es floral bracts are about half the length of the tube which con- 
grown, 3 of line ] Moe number to the pedicels, which are smooth, and, when fully 
» 4 Of a line long, each bearing a flower 4 of a line in length. The seed enclosed in the 
