“Tés, 6420: 
VILLARSIA CAPITATA. 
Native of Western Australia. 
Nat. Ord. Gentianex.—Tribe MenyanTHEZ. 
Genus Vitiarsia, Vent.: (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 819.) 
Vittarsta capitata; caule erecto simplicisculo folioso, foliis longe petiolatis 
reniformibus orbiculatis v. late ovatis obtusis integerrimis v. sinuato-den- 
tatis, floribus in capitula involucrata terminalia congestis pedicellatis, bracteis 
ovatis obtusis concavis, bracteolis minutis ciliolatis, calycis segmentis ovato- 
lanceolatis acutis v. acuminatis pilosis v. lanatis, corolla lobis sub-quad- 
ratis apice bilobis lobis sinuque acutis marginibus erosis basi ciliatis, 
antheris inclusis, glandulis hypogynis 5 subulatis apice penicillatis, ovario 
elongato-ovoideo, stigmatibus linearibus v. dilatatis, seminibus levibus 
nitidis. ? 
V. capitata, Nees in Pl. Preiss. vol. i. 365; Benth. Fl. Austral. vol. iv. p. 375. 
Y. involucrata, Hook. Ic. Pl. p. 725. 
A native of the Swan River district in marshy ground, 
where it attains a height of six inches or so. I have referred 
it to V. capitata with some doubt, because in the descriptions 
of that plant as well as in the figure (V. ¢nvolucrata) cited 
above, the corolla-lobes are acute and quite entire, and little if 
at all longer than the calyx, whereas in the plant here figured 
they are much longer than the calyx, broad, strongly 2-lobed 
and denticulate. On referring to the dried specimens, from 
which both the description of V. capifata and the drawing 
(of V. involucrata) were made, I find the corolla has 
withered after the manner of Villarsias, namely by the exces- 
sively membranous lobes rolling inwards till the whole is 
shortened, and, as it were, retracted within the calyx, and no 
amount of maceration or careful dissection has sufficed to 
unfold them as to show their true shapes. In its usual 
state the heads of V. capitata are much more woolly than 
those of the specimen here figured, but this character is a 
very variable one. 
APRIL Ist, 1879. 
