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ni
oblongo-ovatis, valde concavis, acutis v. subito acuminatis, medio carnosis, marginibus late subscarioso-membra-
naceis. CoroUæ tubus latiuseulus ; limbus quadrifidus, segmentis ovatis, acutis, marginibus involutis, medio
late uninerviis. Staminum filamenta basi lata ; antheræ oblongo-sagittatæ. Pollen globosum, flavum. Ovarium
parvum, elliptico-ovatura, compressum, utrinque sulcatum, spurie biloculare ; ovulis 6-8, peltatis, placentæ
columnari affixis. Stylus simplex, erectus, filiformis, per totam longitudinem glanduloso-pilosus, apice simplex.
Capsula chartacea, brunnea, late obovata, túrgida, paulo compressa, basi stylo apiculata, infra medium circum-
scissa. Colmnna centralis libera, erecta, clavata, bialata, alis ultra columnam in cornubus 2 productis. Semma
valde depressa, 6-8, etsi compressione mutua angulata, pleraque triangularla, pallide testacea, translúcida ;
testa mucilaginosa, membranacea ; albumen inter corneum et carnosum, semini conforme ; embryo compressus,
u t mihi videtur oblique transversus ; radicula obtusa, ad hilum paulo versa ; cotyledones majusculæ, plano-con-
vexæ.
This plant was first detected by Mr. Brown in Tasmania, in the southern parts of which island it is not
uncommon, growing, as in Lord Auckland’s group, on maritime rocks, and from whence we have specimens of
both varieties from Mr. Gunn. In h ab it and foliage it most resembles tbe P . Coronopus of any European species,
b u t it differs totally from that plant in the structure of the capsule, as also in the inflorescence. It belongs to
a small group of the genus, not hitherto recognised, but which are remarkable for having the flowers solitary or
truly capitate and not spiked, never more than from three to five in number. This inflorescence differs very
much from th a t of several species in which the spike is abbreviated, either naturally or by accident, to a few
flowers.
The species naturally allied to P . carnosa are the P . rigida and nubigena, H. B. K., P . monanthos, D ’Urv.,
P . andicola, Gill., P.pauciflora, Lam., and P . barbata, Forst., all natives of the southern regions of the globe
and of the western hemisphere, whose only representative in the old world is the present plant. If however
the sections proposed by Endlicher are adopted, these species will be found to be in several cases widely separated
from one another. P . nuUgena, a very beautiful species, has only two-seeded capsules ; the seeds are
quite unlike those of carnosa, being large, elliptical-oblong, black and punctated, with a broad hollow on the
face. Of P . rigida we have specimens gathered by Mr. Mathews on the Pampas of the Cordillera in Peru ;
it is perhaps the most singular species of the genus in the structure of its flowers, which are solitary, almost
sessile, on very short peduncles, surrounded by a very broad sheath or spatha rather than bract at the base ; the
calycine segments are lanceolate, acuminate, with a tuft of silky hairs a t the base ; the tube of the corolla is
twice as long as the calyx, slender, and at least three times longer in proportion to its breadth than in any of the
genus which 1 have examined ; the filaments very long, straight and erect. M. Kunth places it in a section “ capsulæ
loculis 1-spermis,” but says he has not seen the fruit. From the small size of the ovarium I could not detect
the ovules in the flower I examined. P. monanthos, though generally single-flowered, has often two or even
three flowers ; the capsule is four-seeded ; it is a very distinct species, common in the Falkland Islands and in
Fuegia, singularly variable in size, and in favourable situations often becoming spuriously caulescent, with stems
similar to those of the P . arborescens of Madeira ; the leaves are then two inches long ; whilst in other situations,
as on the exposed rocks of Cape Horn, the whole plant resembles a densely tufted moss, the leaves bein°- rosu-
late and not two lines long. Had I not the opportunity of examining it in its native state, I should not have considered
several of its varieties as belonging to one and the same species. P . andicola. Gill., is a very singular
plant with roots as thick and long as the little finger, the collum often much thicker, bearing two or more capitula
of very coriaceous, lanceolate, smooth or pilose leaves, about l^ in c h long. The scapes are longer, often
twice as long as the leaves, slender and hairy, with three to five flowers. XhQovarium contains several ovules,and the
capsule four or more seeds, rarely less, but sometimes only two. It has been gathered on the Andes of Chili, both
by Dr^ Gillies and by Mr. Bridges. P . paucifiora, Lam., and P . barbata, Forst., seem involved in some confusion
; I have seen no specimens answering to the description of either, if they be truly distinct. In Mr. Anderson’s
collection, formed during Captain King’s voyage, there is a species (P . imberbis, MSS.) agreeing with
the description given by Lamarck, except that the whole plant is perfectly glabrous ; it also is fonr-seeded. and
the flowers vary from one to three. These species pass into other forms of the g en u s ; the P . momntlos, by
P. arborescens, into the ovate and compressed spike of P . Psyllium and its allies ; and the P . nubiyma through
P . tumida, Link, into the ordinary forms with cylindrical elongated spikes.
Plantago is perhaps as universaUy distributed a genus as any of dicotyledonous plants. In Arctic Arne-
rica Dr. Richardson has gathered the P . major. L., in lat. 68° N., and I have seen the P . monantlws, D'Urv., in the
immediate neighbourhood of Cape Hem, in the 57th degree of south latitude : other species not only run along
the whole chain of the Andes, from Fuegia through Chili. Peru and Colombia, from whence they are contmued
along the Rocky mountains, but they also frequent the vast plains on both sides of these great harriers. Under
the equator in South America they attain an altitude of 13,000 feet, whence Prof. Jameson has sent to us a
species, gathered on Pichincha in Colombia. In the continent of Europe they are no less universally distributed,
P . major, which Mr. Humboldt brought from a height of 6000 feet on the Andes of Peru, occurring in
Lapland as far north as 67°, whilst in the same country the P . maritima reaches the 72nd degree. In Asia their
principal parallel is in Persia. Cashmere and Affghanistan, where Mr. Griffiths has collected numerous species,
and from whence they spread over the gi-eat Siberian plains to Kamtschatka and the borders of the Chinese
empire. A few species are natives of Upper India, Nepaul, and the Himalayah mountains. Only one occurs
in the Peninsula of India, the P . Dspaghool, Roxb.; this is cultivated in the colder season, and Dr. Royle considers
it as probably a native of Persia. Hitherto they are unknown iu the Malay peninsula and islands, being natives
of open and not wooded localities. For this reason they are not found, as far as we know, in central Africa,
though several species are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, and are frequent along the southern shores of the
Mediterranean. The various Atlantic islands, as weU as the Mauritius and Ceylon in the Indian Ocean, and
those of the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, have all representatives of the genus.
I have retained Mr. Brown's name for this species, the P . carnosa of Lamarck being probably a variety of
P . maritima, L.
P l a t e XLIII. Fig. 1, flower and bract; fig. 2, corolla cut open ; fig. 3, stamen; fig. 4, ovarium ; fig. 3,
capsule with persistent calyx and b r a c t; fig. 6, the same removed; fig. 7, the same with the upper valve fallen
away ; fig. 8, side view of dissepiments and seeds ; fig. 9, front view of the same; fig. 10, seed showing the
hilum’; fig. I I , side view of the same ; fi.g. 12, seed cut open parallel to, a n d /y . 13, a t right angles to the axis ;
—id li
XXIV. POLYGONEÆ, Juss.
1. R u m e x cuneifolius, C am p d ., Mon. des Rum . p . 95. Cham, e t S ch lech t. in Lin næa , vol. iii. p . 58.
Ro em. et S ch u lt. vol. vii. p . 1416.
Var. alismæfolius, Hook. fil. ; foliis ovato- v. lineai-i-oblongis rarius basi attenuatis \— an species distincta ?
h .ab. L o rd A u ck lan d ’s g ro u p ; on th e s an d y an d p eb b ly b ea ch n e a r th e N .W . p o in t o f th e
la rge islan d , rare.
Of this plant I have seen neither flower nor fruit, having met with it in a very young state only. In habit,
size, and general appearance it very closely resembles the R . euneifolius. It has the large membranous stipules
of that plant, which are fimbriated only in age ; the branching and size of the two are also the same ; but in the
Auckland Island specimens the leaves are not decidedly cuneate at the base, often indeed quite the contrary.
Of the true plant we have many specimens from both sides of America, from the southward of the province of
St. Paul on the cast coast, and Valdivia on the west, to the Straits of Magalhaens. They vary but slightly in
the form and length of the leaf, some being attenuated, others cordate at the base ; always, in the American
specimens, broadest above the middle, and crisped rather than undulated at the margin.
K 2