250 
Hippion hyssopifolium. Spr. Syst. Veget. 
v. 1. p. 589. 
Exacum hyssopifolium. Willd. Sp. Pl. 
v. i Roem. et Schult, Syst. 
Veget. v. 3. p. 160. 
Annual. Stems herbaceous, four-sided, 
glabrous, the angles slightly winged: 
branches few, opposite, diffuse. Leaves 
opposite, decussate, linear-lanceolate, ta- 
pering at the base, and embracing the 
stem with the short petioles, smooth, three- 
nerved, much paler below. Flowers six 
or eight together, in axillary whorls, ses- 
sile, white, each furnished with a linear 
spathulate bractea. Calyx five-cleft, di- 
visions acute, margined, reflexed at the 
spreading, oblique at the base. After 
withering, the corolla remains, closely in- 
vesting the capsule until it bursts. Sta- 
mens five; filaments attached to the mid- 
dle of the tube, and furnished at the base 
with a small projection which rests on the 
stigma, and closes the tube. Anthers 
round, brownish seeds. 
This is a common plant, found in a va- 
riety of situations. In rich moist soil it 
grows to the height of from twelve to fif- 
teen inches, and then every part is large 
in propertion ; while, in poor sandy soils, it 
does not exceed two or three inches. The 
whole of the plant is somewhat bitter, 
though much less so than many of its na- 
tural allies. Like them it is employed by 
the natives of this country as a stomachic, 
and is administered in decoction or pow- 
der. us used it is also said to act as a 
laxative, an effect attributed to its tonic 
properties: one of the best pathological 
Observations we ever heard from a native. 
Fig. l. Flower with the Corolla laid open. 2. 
Capsule. 3. Section of ditto ; more or le 
ni- 
—— — 
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS A FLORA OF SOUTH AMERICA. 
CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS | 
FLORA OF SOUTH AMERICA 
AND THE ISLANDS OF THI 
PACIFIC. 
By Sir W. J. Hooker, LL.D., and G. A. W. 
nott, Esq., A.M. F.R. S. E. ; 
l. EXTRA-TROPICAL SOUTH 
AMERICA. 
( Continued from p. 52 of the present volume.) 
Before proceeding to the Baccharidee 
among the Composite, (the sub-tribe which 
follows next upon the Astere@, de- 
scribed in our last memoir on South 
American Botany) we think it but due to 
our readers to offer some observations upon 
those Composite we have already publish- 
ed, especially with reference to the fin 
part of the fifth volume of De Candolle's 
Prodromus, in which inestimable work, 
from the date of its publication, was to be 
expected, many of our species have appear- 
ed under names different from those given 
Lc 
L4 
us. 
3l. Mycroseris mea, Don.—To the 
synon sim we de already given must 
be added Fichtea of Schultz, in Linnea, 
0. p. 255; but the pappus certainly 
does not consist of scales independent 
of bristles; for each bristle is dilated on 
bothsidesatthe base intoascale, of which 
in fact, the bristle forms the midrib. ! 
7 Less: 
to be a distinct spec : : 
870. Vernonia ericefolia, Hook. et = 
our definition may : duos 
mis floriferis ante apicem nudis aet 
à acie "ibn E 
phalis, pappi serie exteriori paleace 
species. 
Elephantopus Car 
—Our plant agrees with th 
DC 
oki ianus, Wii | 
ZUM n a 
ib spilanthoides, Don. 7 
this belongs Gymnocoronis 
