1231 



&\)C Crc&ftirg at 3Botauy. 



[WETT 



rhizome, and it lias therefore been named 

 after its discoverer by Dr. Hooker, who 

 has shown that, notwithstanding the ano- 

 malies by which it is characterised, it forms 

 a genus of the order Gnetacece. In its 

 first youth its two original cotyledonary 

 leaves appear to grow considerably, and 

 extend horizontally in opposite directions, 

 raised but little above the surface of the 

 sand; whilst theintervening stock thickens 

 and hardens, assuming anobconical shape, 

 nattish at top, and rapidly tapering below 

 into the descending root. As years go on, 

 the original pair of leaves, havingattained 

 their full size and a hard tough fibrous 

 consistence, do not die away, but gradually 

 split up into shreds ; the woody mass 

 which bears them rises very little higher, 

 but increases horizontally both above and 

 below the insertion of the leaves, so as to 

 clasp their base in a deep marginal slit or 

 cavity ; and every year, from the upper side 

 at the base of the leaf, are developed seve- 

 ral short flowering-stalks. These are erect 

 dichotomously-branched jointed steins, 

 six inches to afoot high, bearing a pair 

 of small opposite scales at each fork or 

 joint, and each branch terminated by an 

 oblong cone, under the scales of which are 

 the flowers and seeds. The result is that 

 the country is studded with these mis- 

 shapen table-like or anvil-like masses of 

 wood, whose flattops, pitted with the scars 

 of old flowering-stems, never rise above a 

 foot from the ground, but vary according 

 to age in a horizontal diameter of from a 

 few inches to five or six feet; those of 

 about eighteen inches diameter, being sup- 

 posed to be already above a hundred years 

 old, still retaining their leaves, ragged 

 indeed and shortened by the injuries of 

 time, but which in their full vigour extend 

 to a leugth of six feet. The flowers appear 

 to be of two kinds— females, with naked 

 ovules like those of Ghietum; and herma- 

 phrodites, showing a higher and more com- 

 plex type of structure, connecting gym- 

 nospermous with angiospermous dicotyle- 

 dons. (See Transactions of the Linnean 

 Society, xxiv. 1, plate 1—14.) 



Dr. "Welwitsch found these misshapen 

 monsters, deeply sunk in the soil with 

 their middle-sized roots, in considerable 

 quantities at Cabro Negro (15° 40' south 

 lat.t, on the dry plateau of the coast of 

 Benguela, which is covered with loose 

 sandy rough rubble, and is from 300 to 400 

 feet above the level of the sea. A little 

 north of this place, at Mossamedes, in the 

 neighbourhood of the Nicolas River, on 

 the little Fis'nbay (at 14^20' south lat.),Herr 

 Monteiro found it at a later period in a per- 

 fectly similar situation on quartzose schis- 

 tose soil; andilr. Baines and Mr. Anderson 

 in Damara-land, between 22° and 23° south 

 latitude, in the neighbourhood of Whale- 

 fish Bay, in a district in which not a drop of 

 rain ever falls. The distribution of this 

 remarkable plant, which calls to mind some 

 vegetable relic of a creation long since past, 

 falls between the fourteenth and twenty- 

 third degrees of south latitude, as far as at 

 present ascertained. It is well known to the 



natives. The crown, when divested of its 

 leaves, resembles so closely the cracked 

 surface of an old Polyporus igniarius that 

 it might, on a superficial view, be taken for 

 a fungus. 



WENDLANDIA. A genus of Cincho- 

 nacece, consisting of trees or shrubs, 

 natives of the East Indies. The flowers, 

 which are small and white, are borne in ter- 

 minal panicles. The calyx-tube is nearly 

 globular, striated, its limb minutely five- 

 toothed ; the corolla has a cylindrical tube, 

 expanding into a five-cleft limb ; stamens 

 five, projecting; ovary surmounted by a 

 fleshy disk; style projecting; fruit cap 

 sular, bursting from above by two valves. 

 The genus is named in honoifr of M. Wend- 

 land, a Hanoverian botanist. [M. T. M.j 



WENDTIA. A genus of Oxalidacece from 

 Chili, consisting of erect or prostrate 

 shrubs with the habit of PotentiUa. They 

 have oppositeshortly-stalked wedge-shaped 

 silky leaves, more or less deeply three or 

 more lobed, no stipules, and terminal one- 

 flowered peduncles, bearing yellow flowers 

 with bracteated flve-sepaled calyces, and 

 five petals, ten stamens, and a globose 

 three-celled ovary, having twin ovules in 

 each cell, and a sessile stigma of which 

 the three lobes are petaloid. [J. T. S.] 



"WENIWEL. Coscinium fenestration. 



WERNERIA. A genus of Compnsita-, 

 consisting of low-growing tufted herba- 

 ceous plants, natives of mountainous 

 regions in Equatorial America. The leaves 

 are long and woolly ; and the flower-heads 

 solitary, each with a bell-shaped involucre 

 of one row of scales, and naked receptacle. 

 Outer florets strap-shaped, yellow or white, 

 the central ones tubular, yellow; stigmas 

 blunt at the points, feathered ; fruits top- 

 shaped, hairy ; pappus hairy, in several 

 rows. W. rigida, a native of Quito, is in 

 cultivation as an herbaceous perennial. 

 The genus is named in honour of Werner, 

 the celebrated mineralogist. [M. T.M.] 



WESTR1NGIA. A genus of Australian 

 shrubs belonging to the Labiatce, and 

 containing several species. They have 

 verticillate entire evergreen leaves, and 

 solitary subsessile axillary flowers. The 

 calyx is campanulate costate and five- 

 toothed ; the upper lip of the corolla two- 

 lobed ; and the four stamens included, 

 the upper ones only being fertile, and fur- 

 nished with dimidiate anthers. [W. C] 



WETTINIA. A genus formerly associ- 

 ated with screw-pines, but recently found 

 to be a genuine member of the great 

 natural order of Palms, and closely allied 

 to Iriartea: indeed, so much do the species 

 resemble in habit even some Iriarteas, 

 that the Peruvians often mistake their 

 leaves for those of the former, when col- 

 lecting them during Lent for cabbage ; but 

 on boiling them they soon find out their 

 mistake, the leaves of Wettinia, like those 

 of the genus Socratea, being very bitter 

 and unfit to eat, whilst those of Iriartea 

 are sweet and, good eating. There are 



