31 



N. Ord. POLYGALACE^]. 



Tribe Krameriea. 



Genus Krameria, Loefling. 



31. Krameria Ixina,* Linn., Sp. Plant., cd. 2, p. 177 (1762). 



Syn. K. tomentosa, St. Hil. ? K. ovata, Berg. K. grandiflora, Berg. 



Figures. Hayne, viii, t. 13 ; Tussac, Fl. Antilles, i, t. 15 ; Fl. Brasil. 

 fasc. 63, tt. 27 and 30 C, fig. 1 (K. tomentosa, St. Hil.). 



Desertion. A shrub with very numerous, slender, terete, erect 

 or procumbent branches, shortly downy when young, bark dark 

 brown. Roots long, cylindrical, covered with a thick separable 

 bark, greyish-brown externally, dark reddish-brown within. 

 Leaves alternate, scattered, nearly 1 inch long, lanceolate, tapering 

 into a longish cylindrical petiole, acute and mucronate, strongly 

 pubescent on both sides, 3-nerved, the upper ones narrower. 

 Flowers numerous, arranged as in K. triandra, but forming more 

 elongated lax racemes. Sepals ovate, rather blunt, dull red; 

 petals 5, the 3 posterior spathulate, with the limb a little crisped, 

 slightly connected at the base ; stamens 4, alternating with the 

 posterior petals ; the rest as in K. triandra. Fruit as in the last 

 species, but with the spines less than half as long. 



Habitat. This species in its extended sense has a large range ; 

 being found on dry barren ground in Mexico, the West Indian 

 islands of Haiti and Antigua, Curaao, New Granada, several 

 parts of Venezuela, British Guaiana, and Brazil. There are several 

 varieties, that yielding the official root being, according to Han- 

 bury, the var. granatensis of Triana, distinguished mainly by its 

 broader leaves. This is collected for export between Pamplona and 

 the Magdalena in New Granada. K. tomentosa, St. Hil., seems to 

 be only an extreme form of this variety, but it is considered distinct 

 by A. W. Bennett (Fl. Brasil., 1. c., 70), who would restrict K. 

 Ixina to the plant of the Antilles ; that species, however, was 

 originally founded on the plant of Loefling from Venezuela. 



* Ixina, from the native name "Ixine" at Cumana, Venezuela, where 

 Loefling discovered the plant in 1754. 



