Befiigium Botanicwn.] 
[March, 1871. 
TAB. 248. 
Natural Order Umbellifer^. 
Tribe Muline^. 
Genus Diposis (D. C. Prodr. iv. 81). Umbellse compositae, floribus cen- 
tralibus sessilibus hermapliroditis, lateralibus pedicellatis masculis. 
Calycis denti deltoidei. Petala ovata, unguiculata, Integra. Discus 
late expansus. Fructus a dorso compressus, ad commissuram 
angustissimam constrictus, 2-scutatus ; carpella plana disciformia ; 
juga prim aria filiformia, dorsalia in medio dorsi, intermedia mar- 
ginalia, lateralia occulta ; vittae intra juga plus minus conspicuse. 
Carpophorum apice bifidum. Semen a dorso compressum. — Benth. 
et Hook.Jil. Gen. Plant, i. 877. 
D. BuLBOcASTANUM (D. C. Prodv. iv. 688). Perennis, glabra, tubere 
globose, foliis paucis baud confertis rotuudatis palmatipartitis, 
foliolis 5 linearibus furcatis, umbellae radiis 3 — 6, bracteis lineari- 
bus, petalis oblongis breviter unguiculatis. — C. Gay, Fl. Chil. iii. 
9(3 ; Atlas, fig. 31, t. 2. 
A native of Chili. 
Perennial. The whole plant glabrous. Root a round edible 
tuber, with a blackish coat like our English earth-nuts. Stem 
erect, slightly branched, six to twelve inches high, flexuose, finely 
furrowed, laxly leafy, purplish downwards. Lower petioles an 
inch and a half to two inches long, dilated at the base so as to 
clasp the stem. Leaves round in general outline, fifteen to 
eighteen lines broad, palmately cut down to the apex of the 
petiole into five forked linear divisions. Rays of the umbel three 
to six ; the fertile flowers solitary at the apex of the primary 
rays, with usually two pedicellate abortive flowers by the side of 
each. Bracts linear. Calyx-teeth deltoid, distinct. Petals minute, 
whitish, oblong, shortly unguiculate. Fruit a quarter of an inch 
deep, the mericaiys round flat disks bound together only by a 
mere filiform commissure, furnished with a slender rib down the 
face and two others down the back. Carpophore forked at the 
summit. 
Tab. 248. — 1, an imperfect flower; 2, a stamen ; 3, a perfect flower; 
4, a petal; 5, a fertile flower divested of its petals, with two imperfect 
ones by its side ; 6, fruit ; 7, the same cut horizontally ; all magnified. — 
J. G, B. 
