Plants Collected in Paraguay. 77 



Ilex verticillata. The fruit consists of a small, nearly globular 

 berry, blackish-purple when ripe, containing- a single seed which is 

 flattish and irregularly grooved on the sides, and having a slight 

 aromatic taste. When fully mature, the rind becomes dry and 

 crushes into thin fragments under pressure. 



I tried for several nights in succession to make a bonfire of a 

 heap of these shrubs which our peons had cut down, and though 

 every other shrub and tree in the region would burn readily, this 

 was scarcely scorched. 



Qiiebracliia Morongii, Britton, n. sp. 



A large tree. Leaves simple, oblong, thick and coriaceous, entire, pale, 

 reticulate-veined, obtuse at each end, mucronulate at the apex, 3-5 cm. long, 

 1.5-2 cm. wide, glabrous, petioles 3-5 mm. long, staminate flowers rather 

 numerous, in small panicles ; calyx campanulate, glabrous, about 1 mm. long, 

 5-lobed nearly to the middle, the lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse ; petals 5, oblong, 

 obtuse, apparently white with a green midrib, entire, about 3 times as long 

 as the calyx, recurved at least when dry, slightly imbricated ; disc annular, 

 5-lobed, elevated ; stamens 5, alternate with the petals, inserted just outside 

 the disc ; filaments short, thickened below ; anthers about the length of the 

 filaments, versatile, 2-celled, the cells longitudinally dehiscent ; pistil none in 

 the single flower examined ; fertile flowers not seen ; samara oblong, slightly 

 falcate, glabrous, 2-3 cm. long, the seed-bearing, lower portion rugose. 



This description is drawn from the flowers of Mr. J. Grraham 

 Ker's No. 55, kindly sent me by Mr. N. E. Brown, of Kew, and 

 the fruit of Dr. Morong's No. 914, both from the Pilcomayo River. 

 The species differs from all the other described ones of the genus in 

 its simple leaves. In the others they are pinnate. — N. L. B. 



Known universally in Paraguay as Quebracho Colorado. Que- 

 bracho or axe-breaker, as the Spanish word imports, is a very suit- 

 able name, for the wood is almost as hard as iron. The tree grows 

 to the height of 20 or 25 m., and 1-1^ m. in diameter at the base. 



It is found all through the Chaco territory in Paraguay, along 

 the Pilcomayo River, on which these specimens were gathered, and 

 down the Paraguay River nearly to Corrientes in the Argentine 

 Republic, It is extensively used for building purposes, forming 

 solid logs which make admirable beams for bridges and other struc- 

 tures in which great strength is required. It is almost indestruc- 

 tible by time and weather. I saw doors made of the wood 150 

 years old, and they seemed as sound as ever. In the ruins of the 

 churches in the old Jesuit Missiones in eastern Paraguay there are 



