298 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
fuel in the mining localities, for which it is admirably adapted, 
and is much sought for about the copper-works of Quillota, 
Illapel, and Petorca. In some places the trunk grows to a 
considerable size, and is preferred, on account of its indestructi- 
bility when sunk in the ground, for the construction of the cot- 
tages and ranchos of the country. Its spines are spreading, 
^ inch long, their acute tips being reddish ; the leaves are 6-9 
lines long, 2-3 lines broad, on very short reflected petioles ; the 
peduncles are nearly 2 lines long; the tube of the calyx is of 
the same length, and the lobes of its border are 1 line long. 
The cai’cerule is a thin in dehiscent chartaceous shell, 2^ lines 
long, 2 lines in diameter, enclosed by the free and somewhat 
extended calyx, and is surmounted by the hirsute persistent 
style, which is equal to it in length : it is rarely 2-locular, ge- 
nerally by abortion only 1-celled, in which case the axis with 
the abortive cells form a prominent ridge that runs down one 
side of the shell, and leaves a corresponding impression on the 
enclosed seed. The seed is polished, of a dull brown colour, 
oval, and somewhat compressed*. 
In Sir Wm. Hooker’s herbarium I And a specimen, as above 
mentioned, stated- to have been found in the woods of the Uru- 
guay, with a ticket in Tweedie’s handwriting; but I suspect 
that the ticket belongs to another specimen, which by mistake 
has been changed, and that the plant came originally from Chile, 
for I perceive no difference whatever between that specimen and 
others collected in the latter country. It can hardly be imagined 
that the same species of a genus so peculiarly Chilean should 
be found at a distance of 1500 miles, in a difi’erent soil and 
climate, with the lofty Cordillera of the Andes intervening, 
without the least indication of its existence in any intermediate 
place. As I have met with other accidental, though rare, in- 
stances, in that extensive herbarium, of a similar interchange of 
tickets, I entertain the greatest doubt of the correctness of the 
locality in question, for the reasons stated. 
2. Talguenea mollis, n. sp. ; — fruticosa, spinosa, ramis ramulisque 
rectis, teretibus, griseo-tomentosis, spinis foliis triplo brevio- 
ribus, foliiferis, tenuibus, aciculatis ; foliis submembranaceis, 
ellipticis, utrinque acutis, subdenticulatis, superne fusco-viri- 
dibus, subtus canescentibus, utrinque sericeis, 5-nerviis, nervis 
supra immersis, subtus vix prominulis, petiolo brevi ; stipulis 
majusculis, oppositis, navicularibus, subamplexicaulibus, extus 
griseo-sericeis, intus rubro-pilosis, apice 2-dentatis ; inflores- 
centia in racemis brevibus oppositis multiflora, floribus in 
fasciculis 6-8, approximatis, fasciculis 6-8-floris, idcirco 30- 
* A drawing of this plant, with analytical details, is given in Plate 41 b. 
