254 Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. 



male spikelets are 2^ lines long, 1^ line broad, formed of two 

 sets of basal bracts and six or eight pairs of floriferous decussately 

 imbricated involucels, united into as many vaginant sheaths at 

 their bases ; the perigonium of each solitary opposite flower is 

 of a yellow colour, 1 line long, with a two-lobed erect border ; 

 the staminal tube is \\ line long, supporting the subsessile sub- 

 globose yellow anthers, which open by two pores in the apex. 

 The fructiferous spikelet is 3 lines long, 2 lines broad, formed 

 of four series of imbricated involucels void of flowers ; they are 

 coriaceous, 1^ line long, 1^ line broad, each united with the oppo- 

 site one into a sheath at its base ; the two terminal achenia, more 

 than half invested by the superior involucels, are 2 lines long, 

 1£ line broad, flat on the contiguous faces, and convex externally, 

 of a somewhat glauco-fuscous colour, the summit being termi- 

 nated by an obtuse perforated gland, through which the shortly 

 exserted slender tubillus passes, which has a unilabiate termi- 

 nation. The pedicel supporting the fructiferous spikelet, which 

 in Bridges's specimen is not fully grown, is 4 lines long, with a 

 pair of bracteoles a short distance below : in Anderson's speci- 

 men the pedicel is 10 lines long, the bracteoles being at a dis- 

 tance of 2 lines, and the spikelet is double the size of the 

 former. It should be remarked that, in Bridges's plant, a fructi- 

 ferous spikelet is found on one of the lower branches of the same 

 specimen the upper branches of which all bear male flowers *. 



3. Ephedra monticola, n. sp. ; — ramis oppositis, substrictis et 

 suberectis, valde ramosis, striatis, brunneis, ramulis junioribus 

 teneribus, imo in vaginam vix nexis ; pedunculis axillaribus in 

 flor. g subbrevibus vel brevissimis, spicellam unicam ovatam 

 gerentibus; involucellis in paribus 3-5 decussatim imbricatis, 

 ovatis, obtusis vel mucronulatis, subcoriaceis, margine mem- 

 branaceo cinctis et floribus totidem includentibus ; perigonio 

 petaloideo, vix longiore ; columna staminifera 2-plo longiore ; 

 antheris 5-7, ovalibus, subsessilibus : spicellis fructiferis soli- 

 tariis, ovatis, pedunculo ramuliformi 2-bracteolato suffultis; 

 acheniis 2, in involucellis supremis absconditis. — Chile, Cor- 

 dillera de los Andes, utroque latere; v. s. in herb. Hook. 

 ( s et 2 Bridges, No. 1210). 



A shrub, from its very elevated locality, probably of low 

 growth, with more erect and more slender branches than the 

 preceding species, from which it differs in its general appearance, 

 in its much smaller bractiform leaflets, and in its achenia being 

 hidden by the last pair of involucels. Its branchlets are oppo- 

 site, but sometimes two superimposed grow out of each axil : 

 these are floriferous, nearly ^ line in diam.j with internodes 9 to 



* This species will be figured in the same workj Plate 75 b. 



