384 Linnaan Society. 



much more' closely to Insects in this respect, as well as in the more 

 extensive diptribution of the organs themselves, than any other of 

 the Vertebrata ; and he referred to the fact that in apterous insects,' 

 as in birds that are unaccustomed to flight, the respiratory organs 

 are less capacious or less extensively distributed. 'I'his fact, he 

 stated, is not confined to insects of which both sexes are apterous, 

 but that when one sex is winged and active in flight, and the other 

 apterous, he has always found the body of the former with vesicular 

 trachea', while in tlie other, the apterous sex, the tracheae are sim- 

 ply arborescent, as he has found in the sexes of the glow-woi-m, and 

 in the common winter-moth, Geometra trumaria. These facts, in- 

 ferential with regard to the use of the vesicles, tiie author supported 

 with an account of an experimental observation on the mode in which 

 the common dung-beetle prepares itself for flight, by raj)idly in- 

 creasing its respiration and distending its body the instant before 

 it unfolds its wings and attempts to raise itself upon them. 



January 18, 1848.— N. Wallich. Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



Read a paper " On the genus Atamisquea." By John Miers, Esq., 

 F.Il.S., F.L.S. &c. 



Of this Capparideous genus, named by Mr. Miers in his ' Travels 

 in Chile,' vol. ii. p. 529, and subsequently characterized by Sir W. 

 J. Hooker in his ' Botanical Miscellany,' Mr. Miers gives the follow- 

 ing more complete character, derived from the living plant. 



Atamisquea, Miers. 



Chau. Gen. Sepala 2, ovoidea, concava, festivatioiie marginibiis subhii- 

 bricatis, in torum carnosum, cyathiforniem persistenteni demum iiidii- 

 ratum dentibus eiectis notatum coalita, decidua. Petala G, e margine 

 tori orta, inaequalia, lineari-spathulata, veflexa; 2 siiperiora erectiora, 

 sestivatione subimbricata ; 2 lateralia breviora, exteriora. Stamina 9, 

 quorum 6 fertilia longiora ; filamenta sestivatione replicata, denium 

 recta, reclinata, glabra, basi glandulosa, lepidota ; anlliera oblongae, 

 2-loculares, basifixae, erectae, demiim curvatae. Thecaphorum decli- 

 natum ; basi glabrum, disco staminifero cinctum, hinc geniculatum ; 

 indfe gracile, elongatum, et cum ovario lepidotum. Ovarium ovatum ; 

 stylus brevissiinus ; stiyvia obtuse 2-lobum. liacca ovoidea, subcar- 

 nosa, dense lepidota. Semi?ia 2 (vel abortu 1), exalbinninosa, coclileato- 

 reniformia, I'uniculo libero erecto bifureato ex imo loculo orto laterali- 

 ter appensa ; testa coriacea, loculo altero incompleto hilo opposite. 

 Embryo campylotropus ; cotyledones magnae, foliaceae, incumbentes, 

 invicem plicato-convolutae ; radicula teres, infera, loculo incompleto 

 velata, et ob einbryonis curvaturam hilum superne spectans, — Frutex 

 durus, ramosus, Americre nieridionalis extratropicae ; ramis abbrevia- 

 tis, junioribus lepidotis, 7to?munquam spinescentibus ; foliis e ramulis 

 junioribus orta, parva, alterna, brevissivic petiolata, canaliculata, testi- 

 vatione conduplicata, siibiiis lepidota, costd carinatd. Pedunculus ajcil- 

 laris, solilarius, \-Jlorus. 



Atamisquea emarginata, foliis lineari-oblongis basi apiceque emarginatis 

 supra viridi-nitentibus subtus hirsutis incanis squamisque lepidotis 

 tectis. 



Hab. in campis patentibus, aridis, salinis, Travesia dictis, Provincial Men- 

 dozse Cbilensis. 



