384 
Linnaan Society. 
much more closely to Insects in this respect, as well as in the more 
extensive distribution of the organs themselves, than any other of 
the Vertebrata; and he referred to the fact that in apterous insects, 
as in birds that are unaccustomed to flight, the respiratory organs 
are less capacious or less extensively distributed. This fact, he 
stated, is not confined to insects of which both sexes are apterous, 
but that when one sex is winged and active in flight, and the other 
apterous, he has always found the body of the former with vesicular 
tracheae, while in the other, the apterous sex, the tracheae are sim- 
ply arborescent, as he has found in the sexes of the glow-w'orm, and 
in the common wdnter-moth, Geometra trumaria. These facts, in- 
ferential with regard to the use of the vesicles, the author supported 
with an account of an experimental observation on the mode in which 
the common dung-beetle prepares itself for flight, by rapidly in- 
creasing its respiration and distending its body the instant before 
it unfolds its wings and attempts to raise itself upon them. 
January 18, 1848. — N. Wallich, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 
Read a paper “ On the Atamisquea," Bv John Miers, Esq., 
F.R.S., F.L.S. &c. 
Of this Capparideous genus, named by Mr. Miers in his ‘ Travels 
in Chile,’ vol. ii. p. 529, and subsequently characterized by Sir W. 
J. Hooker in his ‘ Botanical Miscellany,’ Mr. Miers gives the follow- 
, ing more complete character, derived from the living plant. 
Atamisquea, Miers. 
Char. Gen. Sepala 2, ovoidea, concava, aestivatione marginibus subim- 
bricatis, in torum carnosinn, cyathifonnein persistentein demum indu- 
ratum dentibus erectis notatum coalita, decidua. Peiala 6, e niargine 
tori orta, inaequalia, lineaii-spathulata, reflexa ; 2 superiora erectiora, 
aestivatione subimbricata ; 2 lateralia breviora, exteriova. Stamina 9, 
quorum 3 fertilia longiora ; fdamenta aestivatione replicata, demum 
recta, reclinata, glabra, basi glandulosa, lepidota ; antherce oblongae, 
2-loculares, basifixae, erectae, demum curvatae. Thecaphorum decli- 
natum ; basi glabrum, disco staminifero cinctum, bine geniculatum ; 
indb gracile, elongatum, et cum ovario lepidotum. Ovarium ovatum ; 
stylus brevissimus ; stigma obtuse 2-lobum. Bacca ovoidea, subcar- 
nosa, dense lepidota. Semina 2 (vel abortu 1), exalbuminosa, cochleato- 
reniformia, funiculo Iflbero erecto bifurcato ex irno loculo orto laterali- 
ter appensa ; testa coriacea, loculo altero incompleto bilo opposito. 
Embryo campylotropus ; cotyledones magnae, foliaceae, incumbentes, 
invicem plicato-convolutae ; radicula teres, infera, loculo incompleto 
velata, et ob embryouis curvaturam hilum superne spectans. — Frutex 
duruSf ramosus, Americae meridionalis extrati'opicae ; ramis abbrevia- 
tis, junioribus lepidotis, nonnunquam spinescentibus ; foliis e ramulis 
juniorihus orta, parva, alterna, brevissime petiolata, canaliculata, cesti- 
vatione condiiplicata, subius lepidota, costa carinatd. Pedunculus axil- 
laris, solitarius, \-florus. 
Atamisqnea emarginata, foliis lineari-oblongis basi apieeque einarginatis 
suj)va viridi-nitentibus subtus hirsutis incanis squamisque lepidotis 
tectis. 
Hab. in campis patentibus, aridis, salinis, Travesia dictis, ProvincitC Men- 
dozae Cbilensis. 
