TASMANIAN PLANTS. 299 
exists however in the form, placentation, and dehiscence of the fruit in 
Astelia, that much stress cannot be laid upon that organ; and though 
the affinities of both Milligania and .4stelia are so obscure, I regard 
them as nearly allied to one another, and both as members of the 
Asphodelee, 
IL THRYPTOMENE, Endl. 
l. Thryptomene micrantha ; glaberrima, ramulis gracilibus virgatis, 
foliis lineari-obovatis obtusis obscure unicostatis grosse punctatis, 
floribus parvis ternis in peduneulo brevissimo axillari sessilibus, 
ovario obconico, petalis lobis calycinis rotundatis minoribus, stami- 
nibus 5. (Tas. VIII.) 
Has. Tasmania; Schouten Island in Bass's Straits, on banks of sand 
. and oyster-shells; R. C. Gunn, Esq. (n. 2042.) April, 1848. 
Although differing from all described species of the genus (of which 
there are four or five natives of Southern and Western Australia), I 
have not hesitated to bring this curious little plant under Endlicher’s 
genus Thryptomene, with which in every other respect it perfectly 
agrees. It forms a small twiggy bush, with slender branchlets, co- 
vered with little opposite leaves and bears minute axillary white flowers. 
Branchlets obscurely four-angled, covered with pale bark. Leaves 
rather crowded, suberect or patent, 1-2 inch long, thick and coriaceous, 
very shortly petioled, linear-obovate, blunt, covered with large dots. 
Peduncles very short, bearing one to three sessile flowers. Calyx 1 
line long, obconic, ten-ribbed, with two minute deciduous bracts at the 
base; lobes five, orbicular. Petals smaller than the calyx-lobes, of the 
same form, white, persistent. Stamens five, with short, subulate, in- 
curved filaments, and didymous anthers with a thickened connective; 
cells bursting transversely. Style short. Ovary with one small cell 
towards the top, containing two very minute collateral ovules, attached 
to a small placenta near the base of the cell. 
Puate VIII. Fig. 1. Leaf. 2. Peduncle and flowers. 3. Flower. 
4. Vertical section of the same. 5. Transverse section of ovary. 6 
and 7. Stamens :—all magnified. 
HII. DRAPETES, Forst, 
l. Drapetes Tusmanica; cæspitosa, caulibus prostratis crassiusculis 
ramosis, ramulis glabris, foliis imbricatis appressis lineari-oblongis 
obtusis longe ciliatis dorso apice sericeo-barbatis concavis nervosis, 
