THE PHANEROGAMS OF EASTER ISLAM' 7 1 



I have compared my specimens with the rich material of this highly poly- 

 morphic species in Kew; they differ a little from most other plants in the shorter 

 internodes, often completely covered by the vaginae, whose marginal bristles 

 or setae are very long; the nut seems to be a trifle larger than in most other 

 specimens. Still, plants from Uruguay, collected by E, GlBERT, are very like 

 the insular ones. 



On the whole, my specimens agree with a Humboldtii Meisn. Fl. Brasil. 

 V: 1 p. 14, tab. 4 fig. 1: only, the leaves are more acuminate and the setae 

 of the ochrea considerably longer. To judge from the description, o setigerum 

 Meisn. 1. c. p. 15 (P. setigerum Wedd.) must be very similar. The anthers are 

 described as included in ot and exserted in 0. but this is of little consequence, 

 as the species, to judge from my specimens, is heterostylous. 



Area of distribution: S. Amer., Columb. -Uruguay (not in Chile). S. 

 Afr. (an aberrant form:). — FUENTES remarks: Amer. trop. S. de Australia*, 

 but Australia must be a misprint for Africa. 



Chenopodiaceae. 

 Chenopodium L. 



17. Ch. ambiguum R. Br. — Ch. glaucum, FoRSTER 1. c; var. paschak 

 Fuextes 1. c. Comp. J. Murr in Allg. bot. Zeitschr. 12 (1906) p. III. 



On the sea shore. Hanga Ho Orno (no. 662); rocky beach near Hanga 

 Piko; Islet Motu Xui (no. 1 194). 



My specimens were compared with the material in Herb. Kew and Upsala. 

 Some authors regard Ch. ambiguum as identical with C. glaucum L., while 

 others retain it as a variety. I prefer to keep it as a species, mainly on ac- 

 count of its geographical distribution, but also because I have not seen inter- 

 mediate forms. FUENTES probably had but a scanty material of Ch. glaucum 

 for comparison, for he does not give any character serving to distinguish his 

 insular form from this. I do not understand what he means by spicu'as race- 

 mosas muy flojas>, for all the specimens I have seen have short and more or 

 less dense inflorescence. 



Area of distribution: Austral., Tasman., X. Zeal., Easter I. 



Xyctaginiaceae. 

 Boerhaavia L. 



*i8. B. diffusa L. forma. 



Tongariki, near the sea shore (no. 698). , — Xew for the island. 



The Easter Island BocrJiaavia is decumbent, nearly glabrous, with linear- 

 lanceolate or almost ovate leaves, obtuse and minutely apiculate, and w' 

 below. The inflorescence is mostly a simple axillary umbel of 3 — 4 flowers, with 



