Plants Collected in Paraguay. 173 



ETOlvlllllS sericeilS, Sw., Prod. Flor. Ind. Occ, 55. 



Luque (340). October-January. 



A little herb spreading flat on the ground for some 10 cm. or 

 more, branching numerously from the base. Flowers small, in 

 leafy racemes or scattered along the stem, bright white, the corolla 

 spreading wide open, and looking as much like a pearl shirt button 

 as anything to which 1 could liken it. Common in the hard soil of 

 the railroad track near Luque. 



£to1tu1us mucronatus, Sw. ex Wickstr., Guadal., 62. 



Pilcomayo River (1020). May. 



A small creeping plant, with terete, hairy, branching stem, grow- 

 ing among undershrubs on the borders of the campo at the Falls of 

 the Pilcomayo. Leaves sparse, alternate, simple, entire, elliptical, 

 mucronulate, 2-2J cm. long, on petioles 3 or 4 mm. long. Flowers 

 small, solitary, axillary, on pedicels 8 mm. to ^^ cm. long, jointed 

 about half-way up, with 2 small bracts at the joint. Sepals 5, oval, 

 green, ciliate, about half the length of the corolla. Corolla white, 

 campanulate, with 5 broad lobes of very delicate texture, 7 mm. 

 high. This plant is so hidden by the shrubbery that it is easily 

 overlooked. 



CllSCUta trichostyla, Engelm., Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sci., i, 495. 



Asuncion (259). November-December. 



The only Guscuta that I found in Paraguay. This was growing 

 upon Solidago polyglossa. Flowers small, white, crowded in small, 

 glomerated cymes. The capsule which Dr. Engelman did not see 

 is yellow, the crust thin, depressed-globose, 5 mm. wide, 3 mm. high, 

 not half covered by the persistent sepals, with a central aperture 1 

 mm. in diameter ; seeds about 2 mm. long, minutely downy, flat- 

 tened or obscurely 3-angled. 



SOLANACE^. 



Solanum aridum, Moroug, n. sp. 



Stem shrubby, terete, 3 dm. to 1 m. in height, sparsely branched, armed 

 with straight acicular prickles, or sometimes unarmed or armed only at the 

 base, glabrous below and stellately downy at the summit, usually leafless 

 below. Leaves simple, alternate, oblong or ovate, obtuse, entire or with large 

 teeth or occasionally lobed, pubescent, green above and white hoary below, 

 most of the pubescence stellate ; blade 3-5 cm. long and 1-2 cm. broad ; 

 petioles pubescent, 5-10 mm. long. Flowers solitary, axillary, on pedicels 



