82 



SIZVA OF NOllTII AMERICA. 



liUTACE^ 



reaches the lower slopes of the Sierra Madre, along which it extends southward tlirouo-h the Stat 

 Nuevo Leon, flourishing; on limestone ledges where it attains its largest size and tree-like habit i!/tl 

 fertile soil and comparatively humid atmosphere of that reo-ion. ' '^ ^^ 



The wood of miietta jjarmfoUa is hard, very heavy and close-grained ; it contains numerous tl ' 

 medullary rays, the layers of annual growth being marked by several rows of minute open ducts""^^ It''"^ 

 light orange-brown, the sapwood, which is not otherwise distinguishable, behig rather %hter 'c 1 T 

 The specific gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.S7S5, a cubic foot weighing 54.75 pound "^^^ Tt 

 probably used for fuel only. ° ^ ■ it is 



Belietta parvifolia was discovered near Monterey by Mr. J. L. Berlandier ' in 1828 



* Jean Lonis Berlandier, a native of Belgium, was a pupil of De 

 Candolle, under whose auspices he published at Geneva, in 1S28, a 

 Mmoire sur la Famille des Grossulark'es, also elaborating these 

 plants for the Prodromus of De Candolle (iii. 477-483). Berlandier 

 left Europe probably in 1827 or 1828, and established himself as an 

 apothecary at Matamoros in Mexico. He was the first botanist to 

 explore Nuevo Leon, where he made large eollections' and many 

 discoveries, as he did later in western Texas also. At the breaking 

 out of the war between the United States and Mexico, Berlandier 

 espoused the cause of the former, and was present as guide at the 



battle of Resaca de la Palma and at some of the other combats 

 which took place at the beginning of the war north of the Eio 

 Orande. He was drowned in 1851 in attempting to cross on horse- 

 back one of the small streams which flow into the Gulf of Mexico 

 south of the Rio Grande. The manuscripts of Berlandier's pub- 

 lished papers, the notes of some of his .Alexican journeys, and a 

 number of his unpublished paintings of Mexican plants,. are pre- 

 served in the herbarium of Harvard University. The genus Ber- 

 landiera, dedicated to him by De Candolle, commemorates his 

 services to botany. 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 



Plate XXXV. Helteti'a pabvifolia. 



1. A flowering branch, natural size. 



2. Diagram of a flower. 



3. A flower, enlarged. 



4. Vertical section of a flower, enlarged. 



5. A flower, the calyx and petals removed, enlarged, 



6. An ovule, much magnilied. 



7. A fruiting branch, natural size. 



8. Vertical section of a carpel, enlarged. 

 9- A seed, enlarged. 



10. An embryo, much magnified. 



