distinguishable from Preissil by the far less brittle and 

 square instead of rhomboidal leaves (a variable character). 

 He describes it as the finest of the genus, and producing 

 the most valuable gum. X pecoris, again, was charac- 

 terized by the very fragile compressed tetragonal leaves 

 and shortness of the scape. It is described as attaining 

 fifeeen feet in height, with disagreeably scented flowers, 

 and as being of the greatest use in the colony from its 

 forming the principal food of the sheep and cattle through- 

 out a great part of the year. 



X. Preissil flowered in the Succulent House at Kew in 

 June of last year, the trunk being hardly formed, and not 

 reaching a foot above the ground; it was one of two 

 specimens received in the same year from the West 

 Australian Commissioners of the Indo-Colonial Exhibition. 

 Other specimens had been previously received from the 

 same source, through the representations of Baron von 

 Mueller. 



Desce. Trunk (in its native country) ten to fifteen feet 

 high, robust. Leaves three to four feet longj^ery slender 

 from a short broad base, sharply three- to four-angled, 

 brittle when young, margins nearly smooth, light green. 

 Scape one to eight feet long ; spike as long, and two to 

 two and a half inches in diameter, surrounded at the base' 

 by a zone of rigid lanceolate imbricating bracts half to 

 three-quarters of an inch long; outer bracts short, not 

 produced beyond the fully developed flowers; bracteoles 

 shorter than the perianth, narrowly oblong or subspathulate. 

 Perianth one-third of an inch long; outer segments 

 narrowly linear-oblong, concave, acute; inner longer, 

 broader, with a narrow scarious wing round the tip. 

 Stamens about twice as long as the perianth. Capsule 

 half an inch long, valves acuminate. — J. D. 11. 



Fig. 1, Whole plant, reduced ; 2, leaf, nat. size; 3, section of leaf at one-third 

 distance from base; 4, ditto at two-thirds; 5, inflorescence, nat. size; 6, bracts ; 

 7, flower ; 8, outer perianth-segment ; 9, inner ditto ; 10, stamen ; 11, pistil ; 12, 

 section of ovary; 13, fruit of nat. size; 14, fruit; 15, seed: — all but jigs. 1,2, 

 5, and 13 enlarged. 



