Tas. 7231. 
BEAUFORTIA sparsa. 
‘Native of Western Australia. 
Nat. Ord. Myrracea.—Tribe LEprosPERME, 
Genus Braurorti, Br. ; (Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. i. p. 705.) 
BrEAuFortia sparsa ; frutex, inflorescentia excepta glaberrima, foliis }—? polli- 
caribus sparsis patulis elliptico-ovatis v. -lanceolatis subacutis nervosis, 
spicis axi centrali ramorum enactis oblongis densifloris, rachi calycibusque 
glabris v. pubescentibus, calycis tubo } poll. longo, lobis tubo subzqui- 
longis rotundatis, petalis orbicularibus sepalis duplo longioribus, sta- 
minum fasciculis cujusvis floris ad 5 pollicaribus coccineis, ungue filiformi, 
antheris ad 7 longe stipitatis minutis globosis, connectivo crasso, valvis 
parvis orbicularibus, ovario 3-loculari vertice depresso villoso, stylo 
filiformi apice deflexo, loculis 1-ovulatis. ty 
B. sparsa, Br. in Ait. Hort, Kew, Ed. 2. vol. xiv. p. 419; DC. Prodr. vol. iii. 
p. 211; Schauer in Nov, Act. Nat. Cur, vol. xxi. p. 14 (errore 18), et in 
Lehm. Plant. Preiss. vol. i. p. 149; Benth. Fl. yf tral. vol. ii. p. 165; 
Illustr. Horticole. 1886, t. 594. 
B, splendens, Past. Brit. Fl. Gard. vol. xiii. p. 145, cum Ie. 
This brilliant shrub was discovered at the close of the 
last, century by Archibald Menzies, F.L.S., Surgeon and 
Naturalist to Vancouver’s Expedition, in King George’s 
Sound, South Western Australia, now the site of the town 
of Albany, a locality abounding in rare and beautiful plants, 
and especially noted as the single habitat for Cephalotus 
follicularis. The genus Beaufortia consists of twelve 
species, and is a member of the subtribe Beaufortix of 
Myrtacex, which is confined to Western Australia. The 
only other species that have been introduced into cultiva- 
tion is B. decussata, Br., also a native of King George’s 
Sound, and figured at t. 1733 of this work, and B. Dampieri, 
A. Cunn., t. 3272. 
The curious inflorescence of this and allied Aus- 
tralian genera, and which preseats the appearance of a 
spike the axis of which is produced beyond it into leafy 
branches, is the result of a consecutive series of closely 
contiguous leaves being reduced to bracts and bearing each 
a flower in its axil, the whole being hidden by the cataract 
Aprit Ist, 1892, 
