r-i 



■'% 



TO THE FLORA OF AUSTBALIA, 



213 



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Island, and as many of the Baudin E>:podition plants were obtained there, 

 that is most probably the source o£ the Paris material and not the Recherche 

 Archipelago as Bcntham queries (Fl. AustraL yi. p. 67), who, it may be 

 added, never saw the plant. 



iti/ 



A specimen from Moreton 



Bay {Fraser^ 117) would seem to be referable here, though the leaves 

 are longer and narrower than those of the only otlier Museum specimen, 

 wliich is from Tvockhampton but witliout the collector's name. 



PHYLLANTHUS. 



In Robert Brown's Australian herbarium are a considerable number of 

 Phyllantlius sheets, for the most part umlotermined hitherto at the Museum, 

 aiul in much the same state at Kew, whither in 187G a fine set was sent 

 in accordance with the terms of the Bennett bequest. In spite of their 

 having been gathered more than a century ago, several of Brown's plants 

 prove on examination to be still undescribed, an eloquent indication this to 

 the riches one may expect from a thorough examination of tropical Australia. 

 In the immediately following pages this material is dealt with, advantage 

 being taken to notice some rare though already known species of the genus 

 forming part of it. A new species collected b}' Mr. G. Podcnzana (North 

 Qtieensland, 1891-3), and a Malayan out? of the same collector, now first 

 announced as Australian, come also under notice. 



b^orty-four si)ecies referred to six of the forty-four sections proposed by 

 J. MuUer for the genus are recognised by Bentham. Baron Mueller some 

 years later {Sec, Cens. Austral. PL) added two more, of which one is 

 endemic, and he subsequently described another. Besides these there is one 

 for which Di(ds is sponsor (Engl. Bot, Jahrb, xxxv. (1904) p. 338), the 

 P. cuscnUeflorus of the writer, and Pitzgorahrs recently published P. poly- 

 cladus. To these the eight following are to be added, making fifty-eight 

 species in all, referable to seven, and if Baron Mueller's identification of 

 a Queensland plant as P. (mxifolias^ lieinw. be correct, to eight sections. 



With this comparative abundance of Australian Phf/Uanthus species may 

 be compared the rich representation in New Caledonia, the home of many 

 really handson^e species of a genus consisting, for the most part, of plants 

 the reverse of btriking in their appearance. Many of these, one imagines, 

 would repay cultivation on account of their beautiful foliage. 



Phyllanthus (§ Synostemon) Bkunonis, sp. nov. Suffrutex dioicus ; 

 caide erecto spithameo (interdum altioro ?) ramoso uti rami hispidulo-})iloso 

 tandem glabro ; foliis brevipetiolatis ovatis vol ovato-oblongis obtusis ob- 

 tusissitnisve basi obtusis intciiris vel obscure dcnticulatis coriaceis maro-ine 



t^. 



