BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
A NEW SHEEP-POISON FROM MEXICO. 
TuroucGH the kindness of Professor ALFRED Ducks of Guanajuato, 
Mexico, I have recently had an opportunity to examine specimens of a 
plant, locally known as moradillo, which occurs on the Hacienda de Santiago 
in Zacatecas, Mexico. This plant is said to poison sheep which eat it. 
From its floral structure, as well as its habit, there can be no doubt that it 
belongs to the small solanaceous genus Bouchetia. Only two species of 
this genus are recognized as valid, namely B. erecta DC. and B. procum- 
bens DC., both published by Dunat in De Candolle’s Prodromus 13": 589- 
1852. Of these, B. erecta is a well-known much-branched erect or decum- 
bent plant, 7 to 30°™ high, growing in rocky thickets, etc., of the south- 
western United States, Mexico, and southward to Argentina. The corolla 
is 14 to 18 ™™ long, being about twice the length of the calyx. The proper 
.tube of the corolla is short and entirely included within the calyx. The 
habit of the plant is closely that of an Evolvulus. B. procumbens is a be 
poorly known species, founded upon one of the drawings of the Moctho 
and Sesse collections. The tracing of this drawing (Calques des Dessins, 
pl. 920) shows a plant with a cluster of five slightly thickened roots. From 
the united summit of these spring eight leafy strongly decumbent or perhaps 
prostrate stems. These are in some cases as much as 12 %™ ‘ong. The 
leaves have the narrow lanceolate or oblanceolate form prevalent in B. erecta, 
but the corolla has a slender considerably exserted. proper tube. . 
limb is represented as about 1°™ broad, the lobes being subacute oF even 
shortly acuminate. 
So far as I know, the only specimen ever referred to this s 
its description was a part of Schaffner’s no. 611 from the Valley of 
Potosi, a plant so determined by Mr. W. B. HEMSLEY (Biol. Cent-Am- 
Bot. 2:437). This plant (in herb. Kew) I have not seen. Mr. tease 
also mentions some specimens (Schaffner’s no. 69 and Parry & Palmet® 
no. 701, from San Luis Potosi, as well as Graham’s no. 27° from Jalapa) 
; aie : -; anomala Miers, Il. 
t The synonymy of this species is as follows: Nierembergia an : 1846. 
S.Am. Pl. 1:99. pl.20. 1846. N. staticaefolia Sendt. in Mart. Fl. Bras. pes 
Bouchetia erecta DC. acc. to Dunal in DC. Prodr. 131: 589. 1852- Leucant by, Trans 
tana Scheele, Linnaea 25:258-259. 1852. Bouchetia anomala Britton & Rusby, 
N. Y. Acad. Sci. 7:12. 1887. ; xOVEMBER 
37 
pecies since 
San Luis 
