Plantae novae in New South Wales indigenae. 283 
densely ciliate in the upper part; or, from another point of view, the 
thick tube is provided with five longitudinal grooves opposite the lobes 
and edged with hairs in the upper part. These grooves lead down to 
the gynostegium and represent, no doubt, a special adaptation to insect 
fertilization. The tube is proportionately rather longer than in the type 
and the gynostegium rather more slender, but otherwise there is no 
difference in the flower. Fruits not seen. 
New South Wales: Acacia Creek, Macpherson Range (Mrs. J. L. 
Dunew; December, 1905). 
We are rather in doubt whether this form should not rather rank 
as a species, but the arrangement of the hairs in the corolla seems to 
be merely a more perfect adaptation to insect fertilization. All other 
species of Marsdenia described in Bentham's “Flora Australiensis” are 
more sharply distinguished from each other than the variety Dunnii is 
from the typical M. rostrata. 
1. Rottboellia truncata J. H. Maiden et E. Betche, 1. c., p, 741, pl. LXIX. 
A glabrous annual about 9 inches high, with erect somewhat 
geniculate flattened stems, branched chiefly at the base. Leaves 2 to 
above 4 inches long, about 11/ lines broad, tapering to a point, the 
sheath long, rather loose, striate as the blade, and with a short ciliate 
ligula. Spikelets mostly in threes, rarely in pairs, the lowest group 
occasionally in fours, all sessile on the alternate sides of a flat and very 
brittle rhachis, closely appressed so as to form a false spike enclosed 
when young in the leaf-sheath. Length of the false spike about 3 inches 
or more, but the articulate rhachis is so fragile that it breaks up into 
articles, and a whole spike can rarely be seen in dry specimens. When 
the number of spikelets in the group is 4, one is sessile on the base 
and the others on the alternate sides of a flattened rhachis prolonged 
beyond the insertion of the last spikelet, so that no spikelet is terminal, 
the whole resembling the false spike in miniature, with single spikelets 
instead of groups of spikelets. The arrangement of the spikelets is the 
same in the triplets, and, when in pairs, one spikelet is sessile and the 
other on a flattened pedicel, as in typical Rottboellia. Outer glume ot 
the sessile spikelet broad-linear, flat, truncate, about 1 line long, of rather 
thin texture, pale-coloured, but striate with 4 to 6 green ribs not reaching 
quite to the truncate apex, giving it a callous appearance. Second glume 
at least 1/3 longer than the outer one, but of similar shape, the truncate 
apex rather narrower and somewhat jagged, the texture firmer and the 
green ribs fewer, Third glume nearly twice as long as the second glume, 
acuminate, concave on the back with raised sides, empty, but with a 
similarly shaped shorter palea. Fourth glume ovate, tapering to a fine 
point as long as the palea of the third glume, somewhat hardened, vein- 
less but minutely rugose, with a bisexual flower and a similar but smaller 
and thinner palea. The glumes of the second, third and fourth spikelets 
are similar, except that the third glume is mostly longer;: all spikelets 
have a single bisexual flower, without any sterile flowers, as far as we 
