164 
CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
We ought, not, therefore, to attach much importance either to 
the mere circumstance of a suspensor as a proof of the close 
alliance of the Gnetacea with the Conifera and Cycadacece, seeing 
that it is always diversified in the several genera, and different 
from that structure in those families — or to the occasional pre- 
sence of filaments hearing sterile embryo-sacs, for these never 
occur in Ephedra, and not always in Gnetum — or to the exist- 
ence of disciform dotted vessels in the wood, for they are found 
only in Gnetum. These are only partial coincidences, and con- 
sequently of little value in comparison with the strong evidence 
showing a far more advanced perfection of floral structure in the 
Gnetacece, and pointing to a much higher position in the system. 
Other analogies remain to be discovered before this point can be 
safely determined. I may here mention that all the details of 
structure which I have observed will be minutely shown in the 
drawings of the various analyses intended to illustrate the genus 
Ephedra. 
The following is a description of all the South American 
species of the genus known to me : — 
1. Ephedra Chilensis, n.sp.; — ramis ramulisque oppositis, vali- 
diusculis, pallide viridulis, granuloso-striatellis, internodiis 
longiusculis vel mediocribus, axillis valde nodosis j foliis ru- 
dimentariis, oppositis, crassiusculis, margine tenuibus, imo in 
vaginam membranaceam serius ruptam connatis, laciniis li- 
neari-acutis ; ramis floriferis axillaribus, brevibus vel brevis- 
simis, apiee spicellas 1-2-3 sessiles gerentibus ; spicellis 
ovatis vel oblongis, ex involucellis per paria 6, decussatim op- 
positis et irabricatis; involucellis ovatis, obtusis, per paria 
imo connatis : floribus S in involucellis solitariis, hinc decus- 
satim oppositis, perigonio incluso ; antheris 6, in columna 
subsessilibus et exsertis : fl. 5 pedunculo in axillis solitario, 
elongate, supra medium 2-bracteolato, spicella solitaria termi- 
nate, involucellis per paria 5 imo nexis ; acheniis 2, termina- 
libus, inclusis. — Chile, Prov. Valparaiso, v. v. in variis locis; 
V. .<!. in herb. Hook, et Mus. Brit. (Cuming, n, 372 ; Bridges). 
A low shrub, with numerous virgate constantly dividing 
branchlets, which are opposite in most of the nodes, more rarely 
4, verticillate, from 1 to Ij line in thickness, the internodes 
being 1^ to 2 inches apart ; the opposite leaflets, 2 to 3 fines 
long, are at first united for nearly their entire length into a 
membranaceous vaginant sheath, which afterwards becomes torn, 
by the swelling of the node, into two acute segments, coriaceous 
at base. The male inflorescence consists of one to four crowded 
spikelets upon a very short pedicel, thus forming almost glo- 
merated heads on each side of every node : each spikelet is 3 fines 
