lanica, Pers. Synops. vol. i. p. 42. Ld a pumila, Forst. Comm. Goett. vol. ix. p. 20. t. 8 . I . Magellanica,
Lam. III. vol. i. p. 109. Morsea Magellamca, Willd. Sp. PI. vol. i. p. 241. Galaxia obscnra, Cav. Biss.
vol. vi. p. 3 4 1 .1 .189. f. 4. (Sisyrincluum pumilum, T .o . CXXIX.)
H a b . Strait of Magalliaens and tliroughout Fuegia, on the mountains, Commerson, Banks and Solander,
and all succeeding voyagers.
The accompanying plate and analysis of this curious Uttle plant represent all its characters, and especially
those which have induced me to retain the genus which the iEustrious Jussieu formed, but which has not been
adopted by any succeeding author, I t is to be distinguished from SisyrincUnm by its very remarkable habit,
coriaceous perianth, and, more espeoialfy, by the capsule dehiscing at the apex, and the ovules and seeds occupying
only the lower half of each placentiferous dissepiment. To the southward of the Strait of Magalhaens, where
SisyrincUa do not extend, this bttle plant represents that genus, and is also the analogue of the Lihertiai of New
Zealand.
The curious and beautiful distichous arrangement of the fobage, is charaeteristio of this and of some other
especiaUy alpine Antarctic plants, belonging to several natural orders, amongst the majority of the species of which
such a fobatiou is foreign or very rare. Thus, iu Oyperaceæ it is seen in Oreoholuspectimtus (pt, 1. t. 4 9) ; amongst
Bestiaeeoe, in Gaimardia paUida (p. 86); amongst AUsmaeeiv, in Tetroncimi Magellanicum (t. 128); and amongst
Junceoe, in the Peruvian Bistichga muscoides, Nees and Meyen (Nov. Act. Acad. Cæs. vol. xix. Suppl. p. 77), which is
probably the Goudotia ToUmensis, Decaisne (Ann. Sc, Nat, ser. 3. vol. iv. p. 83. t. 4). This tendency to assume a
certain habit, which these otherwise wholly dissbnbar plants present, is perfectly analogous to what occm-s even more
conspicuously in the vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope and Austraba ; and one of tbe most singular phenomena
of the vegetable kingdom.
P late CXXIX. F ig .l, bracteæ and flow e r;//. 2, expanded flower; Jig. 3, stamens, styles and stigmata;
fig. 4, ripe capsule ; fig. 5, the same burst open ; fig. 6, one valve of the same, showing the insertion of the seeds ;
fig. 7, a seed removed ; fig. 8, vertical section of the same ; fig. 9, emhiyo (the figui-es 8 and 9 are inadvertently
transposed)
LII. SMILACE.E, Br.
I . CaÌL LIXENE , Comm.
1. Ga l l is e n e marginata, Commerson, ex Juss. Gen. n. 41. Lam. Illu st. Gen. t. 248. Gaud, in
Ann. Sc. N a t. vol. v. p. 101. t. 2. f. 2, et in Freyc. Toy. Bot. p. 133. B ' Urv. in Mém. Soc. L in n . Paris, vol. iv.
p. 604. Enargea marginata. Batiks et Sol. MSS. in Bihl. Banks, cum icone, et in Geertner de Fruct. vol. i.
p . 283. t. 59. f. 3.
H.4B, Strait of Magalhaens and throughout Fnegia, Commerson, Banks and Solander, 8fc. Falkland
Islands, most abimdant, Gaudichaud, and all succeeding voyagers.
A very elegant little plant, remarkable, especiaby in the Falkland Islands, for its very sweet-scented flowers.
The extrorse anthers of this genus have been hitherto overlooked, from the versatbe natm-e of then- attachment.
The embiyo, described as amphitropal, at first is nearly atropal ; but apparently during the matm-ation of the
ovarimn the seed becomes partiaUy inverted, so as to be placed at right angles with the fimiculus, and the embryo
is consequently heterotropal.
CaUixene is an Antarctic-American, and New Zealand genus. Prom the latter country Mr. Colenso has sent
the C.parvifiora, Hook. fil. (Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 632). which grows at the foot of large Beech trees, lying prostrate
P .
FaUdands, etc?) FLORA ANTARCTICA. 355
against their tmnks in the mountain forests, as the C. ^mrgimta does at Cape Horn. Their Australian representative
is the Dryviophila cymoearpa, Br., a subalpiiie Tasmanian plant, very sunilar to them in habit.
2. Ca ll ix ene polyphylla, Hook. Ic. Pla n t, t. 674.
H a b . Cape Tres Montes, C. Darwin, Esq.
The C. marginata does not attain a lower latitude in South America than the Strait of Magalhaens, but is
replaced in South Cliili hy the present species, which is much handsomer; this, again, is represented in Peru by
the genus Luzuriaga of Ruiz and Pavon.
2. PH IL E S IA ,
Flores hermaphroditi. Ferigonivm corollinum, campanulatnm, sexpartitum, laciniæ exteriores interioribus
multoties breviores. Stamina 6, imo perigonii inserta ; filmnmta filifoimia, infra medium in tubum connata ; mtlierm
inclusæ, lineares, extrorsæ. Omrium parvum, uniloculare. Omla plurima, sub-biserialia, orthotropa, funiculis
brevibus, placentis parietalibus elongatis adnexa. Stylus elongatus, simplex. SUgrm exsertum, capitatum, plumosum,
obscm-e 3-lobum. Bacca uniloculans, polysperma. Smina pulpo glutinoso nidulantia, ascendentia, ovoidea, rugosa ;
testa tenuis, flavida ; alhumen corneum ; onbryo cavitate axili albuminis lente arcuatus, extremitate eotyledonari hilo
oppositus.—Suffrutex Chilensis suherectus. Rami teretes, stricti v.fiexuosi. Folia altema, coriacea. Pedunculi ramis
teimhiales. Flores magni, apeciosi, basi bracteati. Pliilesia, Cominerson, ex Juss. Gen. p. 41.
1. P h il e s ia huxifolia, Lam., Illu st. Gen. t. 248. Poiret, Encycl. vol. v. p. 269. Boem. et Sch. vol. rii.
p. 314. L in d l. Veg. Kingd. p. 217.
H a b . Strait of Magalhaens, Commerson; P o rt Famine, Capt. K in g ; Good Success Bay, Baiiks and
Solander.
Except by the parietal placentation, the genera Philesia mlLapageria (themselves very closely allied), differ in
no important points from Callixene and Luzuriaga, and since placentation does not afford characters of the importance
amongst Mouocotyledonous that it does in Dicotyledonous Orders, I see no objection whatever to arranging
these two genera under Smüaceoe proper and next to Callixene.
In Asteliaceoe, as I have mentioned elsewhere, the placentæ are axile, parietal or pendulous ; in Junceoe, parietal
or basal ; in Amaryllideoe, axile or parietal ; in Liliaceoe, the same ; and other orders equally display a very considerable
amount of variation in the consolidation of the carpels, and consequent disposition of the placentæ,
unaccompanied, however, with any other characters of more than generic value.
In all other respects, Philesia is even genericaUy very neai-ly related indeed to Callixene, thi-ough Luzuriaga, which
has the tln-ee inner segments of the )?ei-ianth still larger in proportion than in Callixene ; and on the other hand,
tlu-ough Lapageria, in wliich they are all equal in size. The habit, texture, distichous insertion of the leaves, which
are all on the same plane with the ramuli ; the texture, nervation, margination, and even form of the leaves, which
are glaucous beneath, are ahke in Callixene and Philesia ; so arc the terminal, large, solitary, bracteate flowers, the
texture of the perianth, extrorse anthers, baccate fruit, the numerous o\mles in two series on thi-ee rows of placentæ,
the many ovoid seeds, delicate testa, dense albumen, and axile embryo which is of similar form in the two. The
only difference in the ovules is, tliat those of the Callixene arc heterotropal, those of Philesia nearly straight or
atropal, chai-acters rather indicating close affinity than the contrary.
With regard to the genus Lapageria, R. and P., it is so closely allied to Philesia that I doubt its validity, the
chief differences being the nearly equally divided perianth of Lapageria, its more distinctly three-lobed stigma, oblong