194 
BOTANICAL  ORIGIN  OF  SAVANILLA  MIATANY. 
The  road  lay  upon  the  bottom  of  the  valley,  following  the  course 
of  the  stream  the  whole  way.  Two  leagues  above  the  village 
the  plant  begins  to  be  frequent,  and  a  league  further  on  there 
are  large  tracts  covered  with  it.  The  soil  it  grows  in  is  arid, 
hard,  and  gravelly  in  the  extreme,  so  much  so  that  in  taking 
up  the  root  the  instrument  used  is  a  strong  iron  crowbar,  a 
little  flattened  at  the  lower  end ;  from  the  same  cause  the  roots 
are  generally  broken  into  small  pieces  in  the  process,  it  being 
rather  brittle  when  fresh.  The  general  height  of  the  plant  is 
about  four  feet ;  but  in  some  places  it  seems  to  grow  stronger 
than  in  others,  and  I  saw  considerable  patches  of  the  shrub 
quite  six  feet  in  height. 
«<  I  gathered  many  specimens  of  the  plant  in  flower  and  fruit, 
and  also  a  small  specimen  of  the  root  attached  to  the  stem  and 
branches." 
The  specimens  here  alluded  to,  consist  of  the  pressed  and 
dried  plant  bearing  flowers  and  fruits,  and  stems  with  roots 
attached,  the  last  being  in  every  respect  identical  with  the 
Savanilla  Khatany  of  commerce.  A  slight  examination  sufficed 
to  prove  the  plant  a  species  of  Krameria,  and  the  next  point 
of  interest  was  the  determination  of  the  species.  Turning  to 
the  newly  published  Prodromus  'Florae  Novo-Grranatemis  of 
MM.  Triana  and  Planchon,  one  finds  three  species  of  Kramer ia 
there  enumerated,  namely  Kr.  Ixina  L.,  Kr.  grandiflora  St. 
Hil.  and  Kr.  spartioides  Kl.,  to  the  first  of  which  Mr.  Weir's 
plant  proved  to  be  most  nearly  related.  Unfortunately  no 
specimen  of  Kr.  Ixina  now  exists  in  the  herbarium  of  Linnaeus, 
but  in  that  of  the  British  Museum  there  are  two,  representing 
that  form  of  the  plant  which  has  been  figured  by  Hayne. 
From  this  type,  the  New  Granada  plant  differs  in  having  leaves 
which  in  the  young  and  vigorous  shoots  have  a  spathulate 
rather  than  lanceolate  outline,  besides  which  they  are  somewhat 
more  hirsute.  In  flowering  shoots  of  less  luxuriant  growth, 
these  differences  are  far  less  marked,  and  the  plant  in  this  state 
appears  to  vary  but  little  from  the  true  Kr.  Ixina.  The 
flowers  and  fruits  do  not  present,  so  far  as  I  have  observed,  any 
marked  differences. 
Upon  showing  Mr.  Weir's  plant  to  my  friend  Dr.  Triana,  he 
at  once  identified  it  as  the  Kr.  Ixina  Piodromus  Florce  Novo- 
