276 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
the branches^ beneath each spine, an elongated sprout or sup- 
pressed branchlet occurs about 3 lines long, which is inibricately 
squamose, owing to the decussating stipules of the approximated 
axds ; from these, both opposite leaves and flowers issue in great 
abundance, which thus appear fasciculated, and in this manner 
the extremities of the branches assume the aspect of dense 
spikes, richly covered with flowers. The leaves are 3 lines long, 
line broad, on a slender petiole of half aline in length ; they 
are somewhat fleshy, serrated on the edges, deeply retuse, and 
mucronate at the apex ; the peduncle is above a line long ; the 
calyx, including the short erect segments, is 2 lines long, and 
H line in diameter, and is of a reddish hue; the stamens are 
almost sessile in the sinus of the segments, and they, as well 
as the small scale-like petals, are only half the length of the 
segments *. 
Var, /8, exilis: glaberrima, ramulis gracillime vimineis, spinosis, 
spinis remotioribus, elongatis, tenuiter acuformibus, et inter- 
dum spinulosis : floribus in axillis subsolitariis. — Buenos 
Ayres. — v. s. in herb. Mus. Paris ; in herb. Jussieu (Commer- 
son) ; in hei'b. Soc. Linn. Land, (a Jussieu missa). 
This IS of an extremely slender growth, and I consider it to 
be merely a variety of the above species ; its leaves are deeply 
serrated, and its flowers somewhat smaller : the internodes are 
6 to 8 lines apart, the needle-like spines are 9 to 12 lines long, 
and the spinelets 3 or 4 lines ; the opposite leaves are 4 lines 
long, including the short petiole, and 1 line broad ; the flowers, 
like those in Tvveedie’s specimen, are of a reddish colour; the 
peduncle is 2 lines long ; the calyx, including its four segments, is 
2 lines long, and, in like manner, the almost sessile erect anthers 
and scale-like petals are barely half the length of the short tri- 
angular segments f. 
3. Discaria longispina. Colletia longispina, Hook. Ai-n. Bot. 
Misc. hi. 173; — fruticosa, glaberrima, fere aphylla, raniis 
ramulisque virgatis, spinosis, spinis oppositis, remotis, longis- 
simis, saepe arcuatis, patentibus, ssepius nudis, calloso-pun- 
gentibus : ramulis novellis sub spinis enatis, axillis decus- 
satis foliiferis et floriferis ; foliis oppositis, parvulis, elongato- 
ellipticis, acutis, integerrimis, rarius apice denticulatis, imo 
gradatim cuneatis, nitentibus, viridibus, carnosulis, uervis 
immersis ; stipulis minutis, rubris, ovatis, apice acute 2-den- 
tatis, longe albido-ciliatis, linea transversali sub spinis inter se 
* A representation of this species is given in Plate 38 B of this work, 
t This variety is represented in Plate 38 c. 
