Mil. a. BEXTUAM ON MTKTACE.X. 129 



Ho]MoiiANTHUs, A. Cunn., is a single species which has scarcely 

 even the claims of Actinodium to be excluded from Darwinia, dif- 

 feriug from the latter genus only in the subulate calyx-lobes. Its 

 retention may, however, be justified as facilitating the distinction 

 between Darioinia and Verticordia. 



Yerticordia, DC, contains at present 37 species, showing 

 considerable diversity in the structure of the anthers as well as 

 in the ovules, and connected together by the single character of 

 the dissected or plumose calyx-lobes ; but this character gives so 

 peculiar an aspect that it is justly allowed to supersede all others, 

 and the genus is universally acknowledged in its integrity. The 

 only separation proposed w^as Lindley's Clirysorrlioe^ in the original 

 species of which a very singular form of anther was observed to be 

 connected with the bright-yellow flower, Subsecpient researches, 

 however, have shown in other species a gradual passage from these 

 singular-shaped anthers to one of the two normal types of the 

 genus, and that they do not correspond at all with the colour of 

 the flower ; and Chri/sorrhoe was very soon given up even as a 

 section. The division of Verticordia into two artificial sections, 

 by the same characters which supply the more natural separa- 

 tion of Darivinia from CJiamcelauciiim^ bas been already alluded 

 to ; and further details on the arrangement of the species are 

 now superseded by the ' Flora Australiensis.' 



PiLEAiN^THUs, Labill., is an old genus of two or three species, 

 characterized, again, chiefly by the calyx, in which accessory lobes 

 are produced from the sinus precisely resembling the primary 

 ones, the whole ten being broad, petal-like, and spreading, giving 

 the calyx a sbuttlecoct-aspect, accompanied also by a conversion of 

 the staminodia into stamens, thus doubling the number of perfect 

 stamens as well as of calyx-lobes. As the petals remain limited to 

 the normal number of five, we have no reason to suppose that the 

 calyx is really composed of more than five sepals, and conclude 

 that the accessory lobes are, as already mentioned, a mere expan- 

 sion of the joint-nerve, produced by the union of two lateral 

 nerves of two adjoining sepals. The other characters and habit of 

 JPileantJius are those of Chamalaucium and Verticordia. 



Cham^laucittm, Desf., the first-established genus of the group, 

 closes the remarkable and very distinct series of Chamselauciea 

 proper, and, as already observed, is distinguished from Darwinia by 

 the anthers, and from the other genera by the calyx. It has been 

 generally recognized in its true limits, the only separation pro- 

 posed being by Turczaninow, who described one specie? as a ne\y 



lilKN, PUOC. — I?OTA>'T, VOr.. X. ^ 



