V. PLANT/E WRIGHTIAN^. 35 



dine seminis ; cotyledonibus oblongis carnosis ; radicula brevissima infera. — Fruti- 

 ces ramosissimi, conferte foliosi, sempervirentes ; foliis plerisque alternis parvulis 

 coriaceis enervibus vix petiolatis integerrimis, marginibus crassis pi. m. revolutis ; 

 stipulis glandulceformibus minimis caducis ; floribus albis ad apicem ramorum 

 thyrsoideo-paniculatis, bracteis saepius oppositis persistentibus. 



92. MoRTONiA SEMPERViRENS (sp. nov.) : fruticulosa ; foliis oblongis obtusis par- 

 vis (2-3 lin. longis); calyce fructu oblongo dimidio breviore, lobis obtusiusculis 

 muticis ; stylo longiusculo. (Tab. IV.) — Calcareous hills along the San Felipe 

 River; July: also gathered in the collection of 1851. — Shrub a foot or two high, 

 much branched from the root, very leafy throughout quite to the inflorescence, gla- 

 brous, except that the young branchlets are minutely hirsute-puberulent. The 

 very coriaceous small leaves are obtuse at both ends, and with a distinct, but mi- 

 nute petiole. The flowers are about 3 lines in diameter, and the ripe fruit, includ- 

 ing the persistent style, of barely the same length. The disk is expanded, lining 

 the tube of the calyx, much like that of the staminate flowers of Celastrus scan- 

 dens, only more deeply lobed, the five lobes opposite the petals, and so strongly 

 emavginate that the disk should perhaps rather be called 10-lobed. The ovary is 

 free, or with its very base only connate with the base of the calyx-tube, which 

 closely invests it, as it does the base of the fruit, to which at first sight it appears 

 to be adherent. The cells of the ovary are opposite the petals. The dissepiments 

 in the young ovary do not quite meet in the axis, except at the base ; and they are 

 obliterated during the growth of the fruit. The dry, indehiscent fruit is slightly 5- 

 grooved : the single seed that matures fills the cell. There is no trace of an aril- 

 lus. The membranaceous testa is marked with a slender rhaphe ; and the albumen 

 is very sparing. — I know of no genus with which this remarkable one may be par- 

 ticularly compared. Deprived, by the preoccupation of the name, of the privilege 

 of dedicating it to the enterprising discoverer of the present species, I had, in the 

 Hookerian herbarium, applied to it the name of my estimable friend, Elias Durand, 

 Esq., of Philadelphia, an excellent botanist and promoter of the science: but I 

 find, just when consigning my manuscript to the printer, that Planch on has already 

 established a Durandea (in Linacese). I wish, therefore, to dedicate it to the mem- 

 ory of that most eminent American naturalist, the late Dr. Samuel George Morton, 

 author of the Crania Americana, &c., and President of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Philadelphia. — There is a second species in the late Dr. Gregg's collec- 

 tion.* 



(635.) ScHiEFFERiA cuNEiFOLiA (sp. nov.): foliis fasciculatis parvulis obovato- 

 cuneatis sessilibus saepe retusis ; floribus (fcEmineis) sessilibus ; stylo subnullo. — 

 High prairies of the San Felipe, and on the Rio Frio; in flower and fruit. Also 

 in the collection of 1851, in fine fruit. Dr. Gregg gathered it at Cerralvo, North- 



* MoRTONiA Gkeggii (sp. nov.): foliis spathulatis mucronato-cuspidatis (j^-l poll, longis); ovario 

 semiinfero ; calyce fructu ovoideo vix breviore, lobis acutissimis ; stylo brevi. — Near Rinconada, Mon- 

 terey, and Encarnacion, Northern Mexico, Dr. Gregg. — "A large shrub, in low grounds." Tube of the 

 calyx moreadnate to the ovary than in M. sempervirens ; its lobes triangular, with a thick and rigid midrib, 

 tapering to a sharp, rigid point. 



