AUSTKALTAN PLANTS. 333 



leaves rigid, from a broad base narrow-lanceolate, sharp-keeled, on 

 both sides, together with the scape, silky, their margins nearly flat ; 

 female racemes few-flowered, condensed to a conglomerate panicle 

 which is much shorter than the leaves; calyx persistent, outside silky; 

 capsules baccate, red, ovate, beaked with the style, three-celled ; seeds 

 angulate, ovate, shining. 



Hab. On wet, mossy places in the Australian Alps, at sources of 

 the Murray and Snowy Rivers. 



Leaves much broader, but not longer, than those of the A. alpina. 



173. Xerotes juncea, F, Muell. ; stemless; leaves long, terete or 

 slightly compressed, streaked, with teethless, pungent apex, much 

 longer than the simple, few-headed scape ; flowers of each sex conglo- 



merate-verticillate. 



Hab. In the Port Lincoln district, <7. WilhelmL 



Mucb more robust than X spariea, and in some degree also allied 



to X. leucocepJiala and typhina, 



XLIX. ERIOCAULONEyK. 



Electrospekma, F. Muell. — Flowers in androgynous heads, all 

 furnished with a bracteole. Beceptacle conical, as well as the bracteola 

 smooth. Male flowers central, pedicellate. Sepals smooth, the three 

 external coherent at the base ; the three internal concrete into a long 

 tube, the free lobes bearing a gland. Stamens six, inserted on the limb. 

 Anthers bilocular, introrse. Female flowers marginal on Short pedicels, 

 destitute of a calyx. Style one, short, with three filiform stigmata. 

 Capsule smooth, tricoccous, loculicide-dehiscent. Seeds in the cells 

 solitary, smooth, not costulate, of the structure of Eriocaulon. 



This genus is chiefly characterized by the want of the floral envelope 

 in the female flowers, but agrees otherwise in habit and structure with 

 Eriocaulon, The name is derived from the colour and shining trans- 

 parency of the seeds, not unlike amber. 



174. Electrosperma Australasicum, F. Muell. 



Hab. On wet places along the Murray, towards the junction of the 



Murrumbidgee. 



A small, animal, scape-bearing herb ; leaves grass-hke. fenestrate- 



nerved, pellucid ; scape monocepbalous, vaginate at the base. 



L. CyperoidejE. 



175. Scirpus polystachjus, F. MueU. ; steins tall, trigonous, foliate. 



