Miscellaneous. 441 



The fungus spreads from one fly to another during their copula- 

 tion. Labotdbenia muscce belongs to the AscomycetcB. 



Laboulbenia nycteribice, whicli has been described as an animal 

 parasite of the Nycteribice, is distinguished from Laboulbenia muscce 

 by the branch being inserted at the base between the first and 

 second supporting cells of the perithecium, and the long neck of the 

 perithecium furnished with a circlet ; of Laboulbenia nebrice, which 

 occurs upon Nebria brunnea, the author had not sufficient material 

 for comparison, this only sufficing to establish its relationship. — 

 Anzeiger der l-on.-kais. Ahad. der Wiss. in Wien, November 2, 

 1871, p. 207. 



The Pepino (Philesia buxifolia). 



" I had hardly entered the woods when one of the officers brought 

 me a specimen of an exquisite rose-colovired flower, which I found 

 in the course of the two succeeding years everywhere abundant in 

 the damp region of the Strait of Magellan and the western channels, 

 and with whose beauty I never ceased to be delighted. This was 

 the elegant Philesia buxifolia, an endogenous plant, classed by some 

 botanists with the Smilacece, by others with the Liliacece, and by a 

 third party regarded as the type of a natural order named Philesiacece. 

 It varies very much in its growth ; for although in ordinary circum- 

 stances it forms a suberect under-shrub from one to two feet in 

 height, when it occurs close to the base of trees its branches 

 frequently elongate, and, pushing themselves through the coating of 

 moss and lichens with which the trunks of the trees in this humid 

 country are, with few exceptions, covered, often attain a height of 

 from six to ten feet or more. 



" The appearance presented by a cluster of these beautiful flowers 

 hanging pendent from the branch of a tree is most attractive. The 

 plant ranges from Yaldivia in South Chili, where it is denominated 

 Pepino, to the south of Fuegia. In the Strait of Magellan I did 

 not meet with it to the east of Port Gallant, nor did I encounter it 

 in the island of Chiloe, though I found it in the Chonos archi- 

 pelago." — Cunningham's Mayellan, p. 178, t. 16 at p. 321. 



The Copigue (Lapageria rosea). 



" "We had not gone far before I had the delight of seeing for the 

 first time that exquisite twiner, Lapageria rosea, the " Copigue " of 

 the Chilians, with the appearance of which, as seen in hothouses, 

 some of my readers are doubtless familiar. The plant winds over 

 shrubs and low trees in a very elegant manner ; and the flowers, 

 shaped somewhat like those of a lily, are often as much as three 

 inches long, of a thick waxy consistence, and of a most splendid 

 deep rose-colour, minutely spotted with white in the interior, and 

 marked at the base of each segment with a small blotch of dark 

 purple. A white variety of the flower is also to be met with, but 

 is of much rarer occurrence. The plant is a near ally of the 

 beautiful Philesia buxifolia of the Strait, but is much handsomer, and 

 possesses a greatly more limited range, apparently only extending 

 from the north of Valdivia to the north of Concepcion, a space of 



