AM AR YLLIDACE/E. 
99 
devour botli the leaf and flower. It conceals itself under- 
ground in the day-time, hut may he easily killed at night 
when it feeds. When the hlack aphis attacks the beans, it 
molests this plant. 
B. Leaves ciliated. 
27. Hsemantha. — Flor. Peruv. 3. 60. Province of Here 
in Chili. A variable species, distinguished from 
Aurea by ciliated leaves of a more glaucous colour, 
a more acutely pointed capsule, and, as far as I 
have seen, by darker coloured seeds, not regularly 
round, but deformed with a shorter and conspicu- 
ously white hilum. 
Var. 1. Simsiana — PI. 1. f. 15. 16. A. pulehella. Bot. 
Mag. 49. 2353. Bot. Reg. 12. 1008. Hook. ex. fl. 
64. Sweet Br. fl. g. 267. Upper sepal and lower 
petal much abbreviated ; upper petals very narrow, 
much elongated, acute, yellow (except at the point), 
with red streaks ; sepals wider; general colour bril- 
liant red ; peduncles erect, forked 5g or 6i inches 
from the base, 4-5-flowered ; secondary peduncles 
short. There appear to me to be two varieties cul- 
tivated in this country besides pilosa, one with 
longer flowers than the other. That which I pos- 
sess growing out of doors, in front of the green- 
house, has the stem not exceeding 13 inches, the 
peduncles 5-flowered, 8 or 9 inches long, much 
more erect than those of aurea, the bractes smaller. 
Sweet refers the name Hsemantha of Ruiz specially 
to the var. pilosa, excluding Simsiana, in which he 
was mistaken, because Ruiz describes a white va- 
riety, and Poeppig found Simsiana to vary with 
white flowers, but not the smaller flowered plant, 
which has the leaves more strongly ciliated. 
Var. 2. Albida. — Perianth white with red lines on the 
upper petals. Mentioned by Ruiz, Flor. Peruv. 
Poeppig states (Frag. syn. p. 6.) this beautiful plant 
to be so variable, that he has found specimens 
growing together promiscuously, in the fields and 
meadows near Antuco, in South Chili, in December, 
vermilion, red-lead, orange, yellow, lemon-colour, 
and white, but always with the dark-red marks on 
the upper petals. He adds, that in his herbarium 
h 2 
