Apparently a very variable species, and of extensive loca- 

 lity in Australia. Mr. Brown mentions his first var. a. as an 

 inhabitant of the southern and eastern coasts, /3. as a native 

 of Port Jackson, and y. of Wilson's Promontory, also on 

 the south coast. Our cultivated plant in the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens of Kew has the leaves extremely variable on differ- 

 ent parts of the same specimen,, whence I have been led to 

 constitute a fourth variety. It is an ornamental plant, both 

 in its copious evergreen foliage and in its long compound 

 spikes of white flowers, which are plentifully produced in 

 August. With us, it thrives well in a peaty or heath soil, 

 simply protected by a frame. 



Descr. A low evergreen shrub, with alternate leaves, 

 very variable in form, but in our specimens generally be- 

 tween ovate and lanceolate, four to eight inches long, cori- 

 aceous, harsh and rigid, waved, acuminate at both extre- 

 mities, and often pinnatifid, penninerved, and strongly 

 reticulated. The margins sinuato-dentate, or almost spinu- 

 lose. In our plant the raceme is terminal, so much branch- 

 ed as almost to become a panicle. Pedicels single-flowered, 

 solitary, or two or three together, three-quarters of an inch 

 to an inch long, glabrous, or slightly pubescent. Flowers 

 yellowish-white. Perianth a little silky, irregular : the 

 sepals at first opening only on one side, all leaning one way 

 and recurved at the apex, at length spreading open in four 

 unequal pieces, each bearing an anther in a hollow of the 

 revolute extremity. Ovary on a long pedicel, which has 

 three yellow glands at the base. Style curved. Stigma 

 dilated. 



Fig. 1. Flower before its full expansion. 2. The same spread open : mag* 

 nijied. 



