change in precipitation, the plant flowers in March (Iulan- 
quihue) and July (Chiloé). There may be more than one 
flowering a year, but we have not observed this. 
Latua is pollinated by hummingbirds, as might be 
suspected from the reddish, tubularand pendulous flow- 
ers. The statement by Mariani (1965) that birds and 
animals avoid the branches of Latuwa is probably a folk 
tale based on the plant’s evil reputation. 
There has been some discussion about the color of the 
flowers of Latua (Scala, 1920: Gunckel, 1933). The 
label on the type bears the words flores coccine?, i.e. deep 
red. Other authors have referred to them as violet 
(Murillo, 1889), red (Wettstein, 1897) and dark violet 
or atro-violaceus on the chromotaxy scale of Saccardo 
(Gunekel, 1933). Plowman observed flowers trom several 
localities and noted that there is some variation but that 
they are usually magenta (Horticultural Color Chart 
27/1). 
Young anthers were collected and preserved in Car- 
noy s solution (Voucher specimen = Plowman 2643). 
Meiosis in the pollen mother cells showed metaphase 
heures with nine bivalents (N=9), (see Plate V). This 
is an uncommon number for the Solanaceae, where the 
base number 12 is very prevalent. However, nine pairs 
of chromosomes have been reported tor several genera in 
the family, including Mabiana, Nierembergia, Petunia 
and Nicotiana (Darlington and Wylie, 1955). 
Latua has been placed in various parts of the Solana- 
ceae, since different investigators have used different 
criteria for delineating the tribes. Bentham and Hooker 
(1876) included Latwa in the Solaneae on the basis of the 
valvate aestivation of the corolla, removed from such 
genera as Lycium and Atropa with imbricate aestivation. 
Wettstein (1898), considering the number of cells in the 
ovary a2 more important character, placed Latua in the 
[ 68 ] 
L 4 
