10 Mr. J. Miers on the Tribe Colletiez. 
foliorum nodosis ; foliis oppositis, parvis, obcordatis, api- 
cem versus rotundatis, profunde retusis et mucronatis, e 
medio in petiolum brevem cuneatis, integerrimis, crassis, 
nervis immersis, utrinque glabris et pallidis, caducis; flori- 
bus sparsis, viridibus, 5-meris; petalis bilobis, squame- 
formibus, filamentis brevissimis; ovario glabro, 2- (vel 3- ?) 
loculari; fructu obovato-rotundo, compressiusculo, calyce 
parvo suffulto, levi, parce carnoso, 2-loculari, loculo abortivo 
seepe unilocularii—Ecuador ad Guayaquil.—-. s. in herb. Mus. 
Paris. (Bonpland). 
I have examined the original specimen of this plant, described 
by Kunth, which is in a very unsatisfactory condition: the two 
loose leaves that accompany it, certainly do not belong to it as 
that able botanist suspected. Bonpland related, in his notes, 
that they were alternate ; but the cicatrices on the branches show 
them to have been opposite, which is confirmed by the specific 
name given to it by the authors of the ‘ Flora Peruviana,’ in- 
dicating that both the leaves and spinescent branchlets are 
decussately opposite. The axils of the secondary branchlets are 
about $ inch apart; those of the tertiary branchlets or ramiform 
spines, which are 14 to 2 inches in length, are about 4 lines 
apart, these branchlets being quite square, with prominent de- 
current angles. The loose leaves described by Kunth, with their 
short petiole, are 14 inch long and 10 lines broad, and evidently 
belong to some other plant. J found a few of the real leaves 
still remaining; they are very small, being only 3 lines long 
and 3 lines broad, on a petiole + line in length: these, on ac- 
count of their minuteness, had been overlooked by that botanist. 
The flowers are small, and almost sessile. Kunth was correct in 
his opinion that this species and his Rhamnus senticosa are con- 
generic, and that neither of them really belong to Rhamnus*. 
2. Scypharia parviflora ;—Discaria parviflora, Hook. fil. Linn. 
Trans. xx. 229 ;—suffruticosa, intricata, ramis ramulisque 
strictis, tetragonis, compressis, subaphyllis, crebre spinescen- 
tibus; spinis decussatim oppositis, longissimis, horizontaliter 
patentibus, striatulis, calloso-pungentibus, internodiis spinis 
5-plo brevioribus; foliis oppositis, oblongo-obovatis oblongisve, 
utrinque obtusis, apice mucronulatis, integerrimis, caducis, 
opacis, supra viridibus, subtus cuticula resinoso-crustacea 
glaucis, glabris, pinnato-nervosis, nervibus omnino immersis, 
petiolo brevissimo, subtereti, superne canaliculato; floribus 
sparsis, minutis, solitariis, binisve, subsessilibus, 5-meris ; 
petalis 2-fidis, latissime spathulatis, ungue brevi; ovario 
* A representation of this species will be found in Plate 42 a of the 
‘ Contributions.’ 
