MTJSSCHIA. 
575 
root-stock becomes lengthened into one or more thick rugged 
naked straggling st. 2 or 3-10 or 12 in. long and in. in 
diam., fleshy very brittle and milky, simple or rarely divided, 
with a terminal tuft of 1. from the centre of which proceeds the 
ann. fl. st. and below which it is pale brown scarred and 
rugged. Foliage dark but very bright shining gr. as if var- 
nished. Root-1. 5 or 6 in. long and 3-3| wide in the usual 
sea-cliff pi. ; in the narrow-leaved form (fi. angustifolia DC.) 
from mostly higher elevations or remote from the sea, 43-12 in. 
long, 1-1 \ wide, attenuated downwards into distinct narrow- 
winged petioles |-2 in. long ; the upper or floral 1. sessile ; the 
midrib and nerves pale whitish like the tips of the sphacelate 
callous teeth. Panicle 6-12 in. high erect shortly pyramidal 
candelabra-like with a sessile lanceolate more or less entire 1. 
at each subdivision, the branches stiff straight widely patent 
round or subcompressed bright yellowish gr. Fl. most elegant 
and singular, scentless, about an inch long ; a mixture of gr. 
and golden y., essentially erect, those of the mostly 3-fld. 
side-branches becoming so by an abrupt curve or flexure of the 
pedic. close below the fl. ; the terminal fl. opening a little be- 
fore the others. Cal. -tube obconic o-gonal with 5 strong in- 
termediate ribs, and like the upper part of the pedic. of a full 
bright golden y. ; the lobes in. long, 3-4 lines broad, in all 
stages erect, flat or slightly concave outwardly, their tips or 
margins slightly recurved and gr., the rest i. e. base, middle, 
midrib and veins, bright golden-y. Cor. paler y. than the cal., 
its tube slender narrow \ in. long, the lobes narrow linear- 
lanceolate acuminate, 8 or 9 lines long, 2 broad, horizontally 
patent or reflexed between the cal. -lobes, forming before ex- 
pansion an erect obtusely o-gonal pyramidal tube far within 
the cal. -lobes, each with a little prominent tooth at the base 
between the divisions. Stam. about the length of the style, 
with slender flaccid fil. ; anth. oblong mucronate brown dis- 
charging in the bud their globose y. pollen before the expan- 
sion of the cor. Style thickish and roundish subquinquangular 
greenish upwards, shorter than the lobes of the cor. ; stigmas 
stellately radiant or subrecurved linear flattened greenish, 4 or 
5 lines long, erect in bud. The lateral fl. have sometimes only 
4 stam. and stigmas; and more rarely 2 of the cal. -lobes are 
partly coherent. Caps, pentagonallv obconic, bursting only by 
the decay or contraction of the parenchyma between the nerves 
or ribs, like the openings of a Venetian blind. Seeds small 
ovoidal. 
(3. angustifolia DC. 1. c. is merely an occasional longer- or 
narrower-leaved form, growing remote from the sea at higher 
elevations, e. g. Rib. de S ta Luzia, 3000 ft., about half a mile 
below the Waterfall ; Curral das Freiras, S r Moniz. 
