CONTRIBUTIONS TO BOTANY. 
171 
portion of three of the former to one of the latter ; but in the 
instances I have seen, the sexes are on different specimens. The 
male spikelets are solitary and sessile in each opposite axil ; they 
are 2 lines long, 1^ line broad, with six or eight series of flori- 
ferous opposite involucels conjoined at base in alternating pairs, 
and three series of basal bracts ; the involucels are suborbicu- 
lar, with a fleshy very concave centre and a simply reticulated 
margin, the central portion being formed of three separable 
laminae, as described in page 162. The perigonium is petaloid, 
simply reticulated, with spotted areolae, but without vessels of 
any kind. The fructiferous spikelets are elliptic, 3 lines long, 
2 lines broad, supported on pedicels 1 line long. The mesocarp 
of the pericarp is filled with numerous very long, and apparently 
solid, filiform woody fibres imbedded in fleshy matter. In a 
half-ripe state, the tubillus is distinctly seen to be continuous 
with the outer integument of the seed, a considerable space in- 
tervening between it and the gland, and between it and a long 
portion of the summit of the seed*. 
8. Ephedra rupestris, Bth. Plant. Hartw. p. 253 ; — humilis, in- 
tricato-ramosissima ; ramulis rectiusculis vel arcuatis, fusco- 
opacis, valde striatis, granuloso-scabreUis, ad axillas paulo 
nodosis ; foliis oppositis, imo in vaginam brevem nexis, su- 
perne in lobos triangulares extus subcarinatos mucronatos 
terminatis, minute granulosis, coriaceis, hsematicis : spicellis 
c? axillaribus, solitariis vel binis, sessilibus j involucellis oppo- 
sitis, imo nexis, 3-4-serialibus, imbricatis, carnosulis, fuscis, 
perigonio brevioribus; antheris circiter 5, sessilibus, longe 
exsertis : spicellis fructiferis in axillis solitariis, breviter pedi- 
cellatis ; involucellis per paria 4-5, imbricatis, fuscis, carno- 
sulis, minute granulosis ; acheniis 2, terminalibus, inclusis ; 
tubillo exserto, subtruncato, rubello. — Ecuador ; v. s. in herb. 
Hooker., <S Monte Pelzhum, altit. 12,000 ped. (Jameson), 
Monte Cotopaxi, altit. 12,000 ped. (Jameson), Monte Anti- 
sana $ (Hartwegg, No. 1394). 
Apparently a shrub of stunted growth, found in the fissures 
of rocks at a great elevation, the branchlets being i to | line 
thick, with internodes 5 to 7 lines apart ; opposite leaflets 1 line 
long, which for half their length are united into a vaginant tube 
round each node, becoming afterwards more or less torn to their 
base. The male spikelets are 2 lines long, 1 line broad, with 
involucels and perigonium J line long ; staminiferous column 
yellow, f line long, bearing five clustered sessile anthers opening 
by two pores in the apex. The fructiferous spikelets are 2;^ lines 
* This plant, with full structural details, is shown in Plate 78 a. 
