256 Mr. J. Miers on Ephedra. 



and its ramifications rising upwards. In Germain's specimens, 

 a cross section of its branches exhibits three or four distinct 

 annular zones, showing a solid white wood with close medullary- 

 rays : these are 2^ lines in diameter, and very flexuose ; its bark 

 is thick and of a brownish colour, but in the younger branchlets 

 of the last year's growth it is of a yellowish green, the inter- 

 nodes being li to 2 inches apart. The axillary branchlets or 

 peduncles which bear the 6 flowering spikelets are generally 

 half a line, seldom 2 lines, in length ; these spikelets are 2-2^ 

 lines long, with six pairs of imbricated involucels ; the perigo- 

 nium is f line long, and the staminal column, rising above it, 

 becomes 1^ line in length. The fructiferous spikelets, upon a 

 distinct plant, supported by a peduncle 2 to 4 lines long, are 3 

 to 3i lines in length, and are formed of three pairs of imbricated 

 involucels, with a pair of bracts upon the peduncle. The two 

 terminal achenia, embraced by the last pair of involucels, which 

 are somewhat shorter than them, and subscarious, are plano- 

 convex, oblong, pointed towards the small perforated apex, where 

 they are marked by a small yellowish glandular ring which I 

 have considered to be the persistent sessile stigma ; the exserted 

 portion of the tubillus is barely a line long, and is irregularly 

 lacerated and scarcely 2-lobed*. 



5. Ephedra dumosa, n. sp.; — ramis arcuato-flexuosis, valde ra- 

 mosis et intricatis, internodiis subbrevibus aut mediocriter 

 distantibus ; rarnulis divaricatis, striatellis, granuloso-scabri- 

 dulis, rufescentibus vel fuscis ; foliis oppositis, coriaceis, 

 granuloso-striatulis, fusco-rubescentibus, imo in vaginam 

 amplam brevem connexis, vix marginatis, apicibus breviter 

 mucronato-acutis, vagina demum rupta linearibus : spicellis 

 fructiferis solitariis, brevissime pedicellatis ; involucellis per 

 paria imo nexis, imbricatis, ovatis, subcarnosis, rubescentibus, 

 achenia omnino amplectentibus ; acheniis nigris, nitidis, tu- 

 billo breviter exserto, obsolete 2-lobo. — In Andibus Chilensi- 

 bus, v . v. ad Cortaderas costa orientali ; v. s. in herb, meo et 

 Hook., Cuesta del Inca (Gillies). 



A low bushy shrub, which I found growing near the Ladera 

 de las Cortaderas, on the eastern side of the Andes, and of which 

 I still preserve the ripe fruits, though my specimen was lost. Dr. 

 Gillies' s plant, from the eastern side of the Portillo Pass, is more 

 dwarfish, and is without flower or fruit. The branchlets are 

 opposite, the internodes being only 6 to 12 lines apart; the 

 vaginant portion of the combined opposite leaflets is ^ line long 

 and subcampanulate, the segments being of equal length, and 



* A representation of this species, with ample details, will be seen in the 

 work before mentioned, Plate 76' b. 



