356 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 sohd white wood with close medullary 

 rays : these are 2^ lines in diameter, and very fiexuose ; 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 1^ 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 staniinal 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 3^ 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. Ephedi'a dumosa, n. sp. ; — ramis arcuato-flexuosis, valde ra- 

 mosis et intricatis, internodiis subbrevibus aut mediocriter 

 distantibus; raraulis divaricatis, striatellis, granuloso-scabri- 

 dulis, rufescentibus vel fuscis ; foliis oppositis, coriaceis, 

 granuloso-striatulis, fusco-rubesccntibus, imo in vaginam 

 amplam brevem connexis, vix marginatis, apicibus breviter 

 mucronato-acutis, vagina denium rupta linearibus : spicellis 

 fructiferis solitariis, brevissinie 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 Coi'taderas 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. 



